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–––Lyde’s viewpoint

Everyone was fighting desperately, even I had my sword in hand helping to stop the enemy, when the sky lit up bright.

“Lyde! Look!”

I nodded. That was one of the three signals we had agreed on. Lapis had captured Stied. The light would have been red if she killed him, white if he was captured, blue if he got away. Apparently Lapis had achieved the ideal result. I resisted the urge to shout in joy and spoke as calmly as possible to give the announcement.

“That means the mission was successful! We won!”

I spoke loud enough for everyone to hear, the reactions differing between allies and enemies.

“”Yeahhhh!””

Even though the enemy was still in front of us, many soldiers held their spears and swords high in the air as they cheered. Meanwhile the enemy looked clearly disturbed. The frontline was too far from Stied’s location to have heard the news. If their morale was still high, they would have assumed it was a distraction and continued fighting regardless, but they seemed to be considering whether to retreat or not.

But a short moment later the loud sound of a horn was heard from behind them, where the rest of their army was. Then other horns followed, all giving the same signal. Hearing that, even the most dedicated soldiers began to retreat. I could not know for sure since it was the enemy’s signal, but that probably was an order to retreat.

“Lyde! Do we pursue?”

Everyone was ecstatic from the victory, and a soldier asked, trying to gain even more war achievements. But I slowly shook my head.

“No need for that. We’ve spent enough energy already, and they still outnumber us. If you aren’t careful they might turn on us. Look for the wounded and survivors instead!”

He looked disappointed at first, but he quickly ran off to fulfill his new mission. I sighed in relief seeing that. Even the calmest of people could sometimes get overtaken by the frenzy of battle. Luckily my men knew how to keep themselves in check.

(Though well, I guess they might have insisted on pursuing them if we were fighting a foreign army…but this is an internal conflict. We might end up fighting alongside each other in the near future. We have to avoid any bad blood between us.)

I watched the enemy army march away as I slowly sat down exhausted.

§　§　§

–––Lapis’ viewpoint

The war was over. After capturing their leader, Stied, the order to retreat was given in each battlefield. Luvias and the other’s battles also wrapped up without too many casualties. Apparently Stied had brought most of his black knights with him to fight me, leaving the other armies underpowered. Only Karin’s army struggled a little, simply because she only knew how close quarters fights worked.

Stied was tied up with ropes and gagged until we could throw him in a cell watched by twenty guards. At first he continuously insulted and belittled the guards, acting like he was more important than them and ordering them to let him free, but all he got was looks of disdain and ridicule. Eventually it was too much even for him to handle, so now he remained silent.

But leaving Stied aside, the rest of us returned to Surfour and gathered in Grom’s mansion. His office was not small by any means, but it felt a bit constricted with how many people were in there now. Prince Magna, Luvias, Grom, me, Karin, Ciel, and three representatives of our allied nobles were here.

“Lapis, let me make this clear. Are you completely sure that Stied was working with Leble?”
“Yes, Stied himself confirmed it. He said they were working with him. Not to mention that the enemy’s army had knights and soldiers from Leble in them, we have more than enough proof.”
“I see…”

I had reported everything when I came back from the battlefield, but Magna asked again, to verify and try to qualm his shame. The nobles and Luvias were shocked hearing that. On one hand, he was a prince, a member of the royal family, but he had essentially sold off the country, collaborating with an enemy country. I could not blame them for feeling so hurt. Karin and Ciel had little involvement with such matters so they looked unbothered.

“I guess…once he goes to court, he’ll be executed then.”

At court he would need to use the Sword of Truth, which I had used before as well, so he could not lie his way out. There was no escape for him. No matter what he did, he would die.

“What should we do about Leble then, brother?”
“To be honest, I’d like to exact revenge, but our country is in no shape for that. Once we’re done with cleanup here, we’ll just close off our borders to the empire.”

Magna crossed his arms and slowly gave that answer. While the relationship between Bordaule and Leble was not the best, there was still some trade and commerce between the countries. There were merchants who regularly crossed from one country to the other who would be out of work, while adventurers and travelers would have a harder time as well. Doing that harmed both countries, but something had to be done in response to their meddling. It was not ideal, but it was the best we could do.

“How are things in the capital?”
“According to our contacts in the capital, everyone from Stied’s side began preparations to leave secretly the moment news about his capture arrived. But we have allies all along the country borders, so they won’t get too far. Still, we should head to the capital ourselves. We need to save my father, take control of the knights and try to give the people a sense of security… And we can’t rule out Leble attempting something soon either.”

I could tell the mood in the room changed when he said that. It was hard to believe Leble had helped Stied on a whim. Why had they instigated a civil war and weakened the country like this? There were many options, but the most likely one was that they attempted to raid the country once we were weakened.

While the big war had ended quite fast, Stied’s men and the black knights had already been causing damage in the entire country. The overall sentiment towards the government had worsened across the board, and many had likely fled the country too. Even if Prince Magna went to work in the capital right away, it would still take some time to recover from everything.

“The number of monsters in the entire country has continued growing, so we should send out knights and soldiers to patrol vulnerable locations.”
“Good idea. We should give the nobles and soldiers that helped us a good reward first, and let them rest and take care of their own territories. But Grom, I’d like to borrow your men when I go to the capital, it would not look good if only Luvias and I go there.”
“Understood, Your Highness.”

Grom bowed deeply in response. In a way, having his army accompany the prince to the capital would make him the prince’s most trusted individual. Many other nobles had offered their hand, but only Grom allowed him to stay in his city, and sent all his men to protect him, making Grom stand out a head above the rest. Grom would probably inherit even more land soon, and be granted a high position in the government’s offices.

Meanwhile the other nobles who had helped would be rewarded with riches and land, and those on Stied’s side would be stripped of their position or executed. They were all strangers to me, but I still felt like sighing at their bleak future.

“That’s all for this meeting then. Make sure everything is ready for our departure in two days.”

Oh man…I hoped I could rest for a bit now that things had calmed down, but I was still needed. I nodded to Magna’s words, keeping my complaints to myself.