Warning
Warning
After securing Lucy, Daniel immediately led his troops and advanced toward the estate.
He held a personal grudge against Kaledra, but more than that, shattering the enemy's morale was the best way to end the grinding battles breaking out across the city.
The Allied soldiers who had been entrenched near the estate saw Daniel Steiner approaching with tanks and troops and raised the white flag.
With the Imperial Army pushing through to an estate so close to the city center, effectively the city was already occupied, so they decided to abandon meaningless resistance.
Thanks to that, Daniel was able to neutralize the Allied forces and occupy the estate with ease.
"Even if the enemy has surrendered, we cannot let our guard down! There may be an ambush, so search the interior of the estate thoroughly!"
"Civilians are to be herded into the drawing room for now! Subdue them the moment they resist or commit violence against Imperial soldiers—there is a possibility the enemy is in disguise!"
"Hurry up and find the enemy command post! Why aren't you moving faster? You lazy little shits!"
As the officers shouted, Imperial soldiers bustled through the corridors of the estate.
Walking leisurely among them, Daniel let out a sigh and looked back.
He saw Lucy quietly exhaling, looking slightly exhausted.
He had told her not to follow and to rest somewhere safe, but she had stubbornly insisted on coming along. Now she looked like she was in rough shape.
"......Adjutant. I will call a medical officer, so how about going back to rest even now?"
"No. I have a slight fever, but I can endure it sufficiently."
"Enduring it isn't the point......."
Daniel stopped mid-sentence and shook his head.
He decided he couldn't overcome Lucy's stubbornness.
"It seems there's someone in this estate you're worried about. Or perhaps something you need to resolve? Hmm. It can't be that you have business with Count Kaledra—he has obviously fled. So, then, do you have business with a servant here?"
As if her intentions had been read, Lucy's eyes flinched.
Noticing that tiny change, Daniel clasped his hands behind his back.
"As it happens, I've already given the order to gather the estate's civilians in the drawing room. They should all be assembled by now. Go and see."
"But as your adjutant, I must support the brigade commander."
"Following a superior's orders is also an adjutant's duty, I believe."
Permitting her to act alone during wartime was an immense consideration.
Thanks to that, the hesitant Lucy looked up at Daniel.
"Understood. Then please just tell me where you will be, brigade commander. In an emergency, I will come running straight to that location."
There was no reason he couldn't tell her.
"I plan to find the bastards' command post. Since I advanced with all that commotion, Count Kaledra has surely fled, but traces of him should remain."
"......There will be a few radiomen and officers left behind to relay the situation at the estate."
"Right. So I intend to have a brief conversation with Count Kaledra."
Understanding Daniel's intent, Lucy bowed her head lightly in acknowledgment.
Daniel gently wrapped his hand around Lucy's shoulder.
"Don't overdo it. If it gets hard, you can lean on me anytime. The promise that I'll protect you is still valid, after all."
Lucy's face flushed subtly.
Before she could lift her head and offer some expression of thanks, Daniel patted her shoulder and turned away, walking off.
Staring blankly at Daniel's retreating figure, Lucy desperately calmed her pounding heart.
Only after Daniel moved with the soldiers, turned the corner of the corridor, and disappeared was Lucy able to come to her senses.
'......Don't act like a fool.'
After advising herself and taking a deep breath, Lucy turned and walked toward the drawing room.
"Captain Lucy."
"Welcome."
Receiving salutes from the soldiers guarding the drawing room, Lucy opened the door.
What met her eyes was a multitude of servants dressed in neat attire.
There were faces she was seeing for the first time, but familiar faces as well.
They were the people who had coldly treated Lucy in her childhood.
As soon as they saw Lucy, they bowed their heads as if they were criminals.
As she watched the faces trembling with fear, someone pushed their way through the crowd.
"Let me through, please! Just a moment! Excuse me......!"
The woman emerging from the gap between the servants was rather short and had freckles.
She somehow resembled Meli, the maid Lucy had been close with when she was young.
"I said move, please! Ugh! Seriously......!"
Watching Namelias, who was struggling with her small frame and doing her utmost to come forward, Lucy naturally let out a laugh.
Eventually managing to break free from the crowd of servants, Namelias spotted the smiling Lucy and beamed brightly.
"My lady! You're unharmed! What a relief!"
Having said that, Namelias approached Lucy with quick little steps and grabbed her hands.
"Do you know how worried I was when the soldiers took you away? Honestly, such terrible people! I tried to stop them, but they pushed me aside, telling me not to interfere, you know?"
Everyone else was afraid of Lucy, but Namelias was chattering away as if she had met a friend she'd been briefly separated from.
Lucy didn't dislike that.
In fact, she welcomed it.
"So I kept praying for your return, my lady, and it seems the Lord listened! The one worrying thing is that this place is full of Imperial soldiers......."
Namelias stopped mid-sentence and drew a sharp breath.
It belatedly occurred to her that Lucy was also an officer in the Imperial Army.
Watching Lucy's reaction, Namelias spoke in a voice that was trailing off.
"Um...... my lady, you aren't having any strange thoughts right now, are you? Of course, it's not like someone like me could have any say in your judgment."
She was worried that Lucy might intend to harm the servants.
Lucy, who had been quietly listening to Namelias, looked around at the servants once again.
She could see the now quite elderly servants recalling their past wrongs as tears welled in their eyes.
In the old days, she would have thought those tears were just a desperate struggle for survival.
That they were nothing more than frantic submission and hypocrisy to beg for their lives from the strong.
But now she understood.
That those people were not bad people, but merely ordinary people.
They had simply been placed in a situation where they would have been sentenced to death by Count Kaledra as punishment for resisting the sins he committed.
And so, Lucy had now decided not to hate people.
"There's no need to worry."
Looking down at Namelias, Lucy continued quietly.
"I told you before. That the brigade commander would never attack civilians."
"......Do you feel the same way, my lady?"
"Yes."
Thinking of Daniel's face, Lucy gave a soft smile.
"I am the same as him."
*
Meanwhile, having escaped the city using spare Etheliom Conversion Stones, Count Kaledra and his staff officers were rapidly retreating, split among three military vehicles.
The confidence they had displayed when they stormed Penbark with two regiments was nowhere to be found; now, only a heavy silence hung over them.
A staff officer examining a map among them let out a low sigh and opened his mouth.
"Major, I think it would be better to detour northwest at the next intersection. The enemy might conduct aerial reconnaissance, so it's rational to move through the forest as much as possible."
No one pointed out that the major was gripping the steering wheel.
That was how dire the situation was.
Perhaps because they had accepted defeat, the air had settled so heavily that even breathing was difficult.
Because of this, the communications officer sitting nervously in the passenger seat hastily worked the radio.
Static came through from the other side.
Wondering what the message was, the communications officer lifted the receiver to his ear and could not help but be surprised.
─ This is Daniel Steiner. Connect me to Count Kaledra.
A transmission had suddenly come from Daniel Steiner.
The communications officer, at a loss for what to do, swallowed hard and looked back at the rear seat.
"Your Excellency, the Count. Daniel Steiner is asking for you......."
Kaledra's eyebrows twitched.
As if he didn't need to hear the rest, Kaledra reached out his hand.
When the communications officer handed over the receiver, Kaledra pressed the transmit button.
"Do you have something you wish to say to me?"
The reply came a moment later.
─ Surrender.
Dumbfounded, Kaledra spoke through gritted teeth.
"Surrender? You act as if occupying Penbark has already won you the war. Don't be insolent. As long as I am alive, the Allied Nations will never surrender to the Empire."
After a brief flow of static, Daniel's voice came through.
─ If that's your wish, I will turn the Allied Nations into a sea of fire as you desire. I will find you screaming in that horrific hell and I will kill you without fail.
The chilling voice continued.
─ I will ensure that all those who follow you meet the same end.
Hearing the voice flowing from the radio, the staff officers broke out in cold sweat.
After that, the transmission cut off.
In the silence, Kaledra, who had set down the receiver, raised a trembling hand and pressed it against his forehead.
Daniel Steiner would be reborn through this battle as the Empire's one and only great commander.
Cold sweat trickling down, Kaledra clenched his teeth tightly.
'Someday...... I will definitely see this through to the end.'
Hating Daniel Steiner, his sole arch-rival, all the while.