“Do you want us to take over watch sir?”

“Nah. You three have been working all day. Go ahead and take a nice long rest.”

“Alright… Thank you sir.”

“Hey… You don't have to be so polite, people will take advantage of you if you keep offering help.”

“Thank y-… Alright. Talk to you later than si-… Stupid.”

“Haha. Now you're getting it. You'll make a fine pirate some day with that attitude. Maybe even serve under our captain directely.”

We head to the base… Asking where the bunk's are to sleep. The good thing about the new building being built is asking questions isn't out of the ordinary. I would have thought that Gold would have been more prepared for infiltration than this… There are some negatives for having such a big force. Me and Leon discretely sneak out and spread the propaganda papers. If they desert and head to the south, we'll give them far better treatment than they would get here… Destroying all their food was too good a strategy.

The next morning… The man who was throwing blood approaches the outside of the building. I watch him through one of the openings in the 2nd floors wall. He must be the face of the pirates with Gold hiding behind the scenes and pulling the strings of the operation. He begins to speak.

“LISTEN UP!”

He has to yell very loudly so the majority of the people can hear him.

“You all know the rules! Anyone caught deserting will be put on a spike outside! There is no surrender! We can't do anything about our food. We are rationing the food right now and you can only eat every other day!”

Shit… So by starving them out we essentially killed hundreds if not thousands of them unless they get food. Perhaps having a supply drop given would show our kindness to the enemy so they'll be more likely to desert. The man who was keeping watch yells out to the man now.

“WE'VE GOT A TRAITOR AMONG US! Last night we found papers stating the enemy is willing to take our injured and help them! The papers also say some disturbing things about our leader! They also say that if we desert, they'll give us fair treatment!”

The blood knight responds to him.

“DO YOU THINK THEY WOULD GIVE YOU FAIR TREATMENT AFTER AMBUSHING US!? NO! It is a trap to weaken our numbers! The only way to win this war is by sticking together! Any deserters caught will be put to death immediately!"

…This is worse than I thought… Gold would rather her own men die then betray her… That's not the worst of this situation… Even if her men die… They can still be used as fodder to fight for her… If all the pirates die… She'll still have 5000 corpses she can use as minions for her plans in the future. Even controlling 100 at a time, she could eventually whittle down a very big force by using this method. As the corpses fight, they will kill more people, then she can use their corpses next. People would be less than willing to attack their comrades corpses… This could end badly… Perhaps going under cover to hear their plans was a bad idea… Until I hear a few of the pirates whisper.

“Even at the risk of death… I might still be willing to desert just to get a decent meal. We wont have to fight those monsters if we surrender...”

The pirate that was keeping watch overheard this person. He turns to him and says.

“It looks like we got ourselves a traitor here. Perhaps we'll make an example out of you to keep everyone else in line… No… If you desert, your death will be slow and painful… There is no way the enemy would be willing to just take prisoners… You'll either be killed on the spot or eaten by that army of creatures… You didn't fight them… It was awful… They were so ravenous… Everyone they killed they would eat. If you surrender… You'll be eaten with them.”

What kind of stupid lie is that? I guess… If you were trying to scare an army into staying… Something like that would work well. But even so, there were other pirates that had seen us fight. They would have seen the corpses left behind… Gold must have hidden them afterwords to use as pawns in future attacks. Padding her numbers with extra troops for every future skirmish we have against her army… This seems like it keeps getting harder and harder to win without a full scale assault.

…If I can slip away… I might be able to find the rest of the food being stored… Perhaps poisoning it so that it will be inedible… The main question is where did the food come from? If we had destroyed the 2 food storage rooms, there shouldn't be any food left. Unless their was another food storage inside the main building… That seems most likely. I walk up to the main guard, the one that was keeping watch… I think he might be a subordinate directly under Gold… I ask him stuff about the food.

“It is far more heavily guarded now. With the small amount of food left, we need to make sure the enemies can't get to it… As well as our own men who might steal it from under our noses.”

That is my next goal… If I can ruin the remaining food, there will be nothing they can do but surrender… I do busy work, I had extra food stored inside my void tooth. We eat our hidden rations in silence before the plan tonight. Lance will attempt to encourage some of the pirates to desert. Leon is going to attempt to find the captains aids… The man who had helped me will perish tonight, without their leaders holding them together. They're more likely to desert.

I'll sneak inside the main building and look for the food to poison. Even if I have to give myself away, I feel I could still get away even after contaminating the food… I wouldn't question it if their were 100 guards for the food. If the pirates were to mutiny that would be the first place they would attack… Perhaps causing a mutiny would be better than trying to get them to desert… We'll just have to do this mission for now.

It is late enough… We break apart for our separate missions. Lance will meet with a group of men sitting around a boiling pot of food. Or… Leather that is being cooked for the purposes of eating instead of food… These men have a rough time ahead of them if they still plan on following Gold… I will keep pushing for the circumstances to be too desperate for them to stay around.

Leon separates… I hate putting my men through these missions… He will have to kill at least a single person tonight… Maybe even more if he can sniff out the men directly under Gold… He personally has the hardest mission… At least to me… It would be hard for me to kill someone, especially someone as nice as that man…

I break off myself… Burning a hole into the main building with some of my remaining acid. Thankfully with sensory map, I know there is no one underneath me. I eat through the roof enough to make a tiny hole. Shape shifting into mouse form, I jump down. The room I land in is very messy… It looks like an officer of her armies room… It isn't nearly as nice as one of my generals rooms. I open the door… As expected the hallways are far more guarded then before… This mission is going to be very difficult.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Even as a mouse… Even with true stealth… I can still be caught. It will be difficult but with the clutter of men in the hallways. If I accidentally bump into one… Hard enough… No… I don't think I can be caught as it is right now. I feel a familiar presence in the room with the majority of the guards in front of it… That must be where they are guarding the food… Why is the blood knight inside though?

I try to sneak in… There are no ways to enter without the door being open though. I could attempt to break through the wall on the side of the building… But that would result in my cover being blown immediately… I'll just have to wait… Over an hour later. The blood knight comes out… I use this opportunity to sneak past… There is still 1… No 2 people inside I can sense…

Entering the room… I am terrified by what I see… The room isn't a storage room for food… It is a butchers room full of the corpses of the men who died on the battlefield… Mostly human but I see some of my own men mixed in… The food they plan on serving to their own men… It is people… I gag a tiny bit. Glad I haven't been forced to eat their food yet… What a sick idea… I couldn't imagine myself eating another person.

As disgusting as this is… I need to figure out a way to use this against the enemies… If I kill the two men inside preparing the “meat”… I can then contaminate this food… After that I can call for help and go into true stealth before they open the door. Sneaking past them as they see what their leader is planning for them to eat… Chances are… There men will be far more likely to desert after that… This is the plan I've decided suits this room the best… It will take hours to poison all of this meat though...

If the blood knight comes back… It might be advantageous to ambush him and take him out of the picture… With Gold losing her most valuable man… She will be forced to show herself. She might even surrender at that point. If worse comes to worse… I'll retreat… With my speed I doubt even if they all jumped on me at once they wouldn't be able to stop me. That is only if the blood knight even returns.

I get to work now. I sneak up behind the first worker I plan on killing. Changing back into my human form I assassinate him with my heirloom sword. As I do this, before the other butcher even realizes what happened. I use my shuriken launcher to kill him. I had been using expose weakness on him long enough for exploit weakness to work. Several of the shurikens hit his throat, muffling the sound of him dying. He attempts to let out a scream but only a gurgle comes out.

I start poisoning all the food. First with some numbing poison. If consumed, it would make the person have violent stomach pains. Possibly long enough to attack them while they're not in fighting shape. I also add almost lethal poison and get ready to leave. I'm about to leave and call for the guards… I sense the blood knight returning back now. I call for help before he rounds the corner.

“Help! Someone is in here!”

I immediately go mouse form and cast true stealth on myself. Several of the guards rush into the room. I sneak out as I hear the people enter the room… One of them says.

“By the gods. Is this what they have planned for us to eat?”

I scurry through the remaining guards feet. Almost getting trampled as the blood knight rushes towards the guards after he sees the door is open. I hear him yell out.

“I TOLD YOU TO NOT LOOK INSIDE!”

I leave before I'm found… Returning to my room where Lance has already returned a few minutes later Leon returns… We discuss our missions… Leon was successful on killing 4 of the leaders… Lance had riled up several camps worth of pirates. They were cooking on the second floor of the building. All cooking something made of leather to eat just to tied their stomachs over. With the building still being under construction, the roof is missing in several locations. Then I get to what I've seen.

“They don't have any extra food… They are going to force feed the troops the corpses of the fallen from this war.”

They both looked shocked. None of us had expected that… I start writing up some new propaganda papers… This time the only words written on them are.

“The food your leader Gold is serving you is the dead from the battlefield.”

We spend the rest of that night spreading the message… It is very difficult to sleep since we're in the middle of an enemy base… We all manage to get some sleep. The next day the urgency is far greater then before. The blood knight comes out and before he can say anything, someone else asks the obvious question.

“IS GOLD FEEDING US HUMAN TODAY!?”

The blood knight barely moves… He knew this question was coming… Even if we hadn't spread the word… I doubt the guards would have kept silent… He could have killed them all but the chances of causing a riot would be far more escalated. He finally speaks.

“Our leader had thought the enemy would be spreading rumors about our food… I didn't expect them to know the leaders name so soon though… Gold is your leader and she has taken her own supply of stored food to give to her men. Do not listen to speculation… We aren't forcing any of you to eat anything you don't want to.”

As he says that several guards wheel out pots of stew and plates of meat. Everyone… Even considering the fact that the meat could be human looks on in hunger… Perhaps this plan will not work… Once they eat it they will be poisoned, making it far more believable that it is human meat… Some of the men start going down, warily picking the plates of tainted food up. As they eat… I expect them to get sick… I expect them to start throwing up and falling over in pain… None of that happens… Instead something far worse happens.

The men who eat start to shake from consuming the food. It looks as if the flesh on their faces starts to split, blood pouring out! The eyes go light as if they have been blinded and they let intense screams as if their insides are being torn apart. All of their flesh is starting to fall off! The several men who had eaten the food run off towards… Where my some of my men are located!