Chrysalis

The revered Queen Verita of Liria, second of her name, defender of the frontier and upholder of the Lion tenants of her ancestors was pissed.

Long had she puzzled over how the enemy had been able to gather so many more troops than she had been able to anticipate. Her closest advisors had worked with her on their strategy. The careful plotting, endless information gathering, debates and planning had been overthrown when her soldiers had been soundly defeated and outnumbered when the trap had finally been sprung and her enemies dashed out of the shadows into the light.

Where had all these fighters come from?

Seeing those organised warriors at the castle door was one thing and now looking at these disciplined soldiers dressed in mercenary gear arrayed against them before the dais of her own throne it all became clear.

These were not mercenaries or hirelings brought in to bolster the numbers for the fight. These were trained soldiers from a nearby kingdom! There must be a hundred of them there! This isn't a small number by any means. Someone must have wanted to interfere in the political situation in Liria desperately to commit so many of their people to a coup in another country!

Seeing the Andron ambassador standing beside Corrin as the filthy Mercenary Union lounged on Verita's throne she could easily guess who it had been.

"Great Queen Verita, how nice of you to join us" drawled Corrin, one leg dangling over the side of the throne, "we were just wondering when my coronation should be held. You wouldn't have any input on the matter would you?"

Verita disregarded the mercenary as beneath her notice and turned instead towards the ambassador Regix.

"Regix, so interesting to see you here. Incredible how quickly the kingdom of Andron has been able to adjust to the changing landscape here in Liria. One could be forgiven for thinking that you had known about all of this in advance" she said.

The ambassador smiled tightly and turned to Corrin, deferring to the Union leader.

Enjoying the display of her authority Corrin beamed at her former Queen.

"Don't be upset Verita. It turns out people other than me can notice how incompetent your reign has been. Our friends from across the border wanted to assist the people of Liria to have good governance, for once".

her eyes at the

the only thing you cared about was money and power,

in front of the street rats though" she gestured towards the townsfolk nervously clutching their weapons behind their Queen, "I can't very well say to the public that I'll be rewarded with mountains of gold by Andron for destroying

the campaign to liberate these lands from the monsters. Since then they had tirelessly worked to raise this nation

a moment of clarity the Queen realised exactly why Andron would be prepared to go so far. They were afraid. Liria had risen so far and so quickly that their neighbour to the north feared they would be overshadowed and eventually absorbed. After all, it was Liria that

of Andron she might have been tempted to secure the future of

she was Queen Verita Leocor of the Leocor's. Liria was her kingdom and she'd be damned before she

surrender yourself to me for judgement. Regix, order your men to stand down at once and you may

his head and chuckled to himself but Corrin was

city but the only that did is save me the trouble of hunting you down in the countryside and putting you down like a dog.

others' eyes Queen Verita sincerely doubted

As one the soldiers arrayed before her tensed and even Corrin's eyes widened in surprise. Without

between her and the monster. As soon as the weave was done the cold and emotionless voice she had still not grown accustomed

are these worms?]

constant disrespect and rudeness she received from this monster but she could only overlook it, how

me and a century of soldiers from a

rolling off the creature

on the throne, a grin twisting her face. "You've even allied with a monster in order to regain your throne Verita? What would your precious Legion say if they were

talking much when I

toward the

and our pact will be finished monster. Those people all have to die and you will have

had to admit she was nervous as she asked. As far as monsters go this ant wasn't that large of powerful, but for some reason it managed to overcome impossible odds over and over again. The baffling magic that it was able to use continually surprised her, even filled her with trepidation. The blast that destroyed the gates was