Chapter 316: Prisoners of War (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 316: Prisoners of War (1)
The office of the Knight Commander of Dmitry.
Jonathan read over the report, his expression stiff and grim.
"...Are you telling me there might still be prisoners of war held in the Kronos Empire?"
"Yes, sir. It isn't certain yet, but ten minutes ago, we received a transmission from coordinates beyond the Western Front. As detailed in the report, the sender only managed to transmit a few short, fragmented words: 'help,' 'here,' and 'prisoner.' Considering they connected through Dmitry's direct magic communication line, there is a high probability that it's one of our POWs."
It was just a hypothesis.
Although they lacked concrete proof, the fragmented pieces of information strongly pointed toward the existence of surviving captives.
"We are currently cross-referencing the brief voice recording from the transmission with the records of soldiers classified as deceased due to being missing in action. If they truly belong to Dmitry, we will be able to verify their identity within a few days at the latest."
"Hrm."
Knight Commander Jonathan's face scrunched in distress.
The missing in action. They were a truly ambiguous existence.
Those whose bodies were identified could simply be marked as deceased. But those who failed to return and whose bodies could not be found had to be classified as missing. The issue was that "missing" did not automatically equate to "dead." Some might have deserted during the war, while others might have been taken prisoner. However, in most cases, they were classified as missing simply because they had died so brutally that their remains could not be recovered.
If.
If there had been even the slightest chance they were alive, Dmitry would never have written off the missing as dead.
‘During the ceasefire negotiations, the Kronos Empire claimed to have released all prisoners. And indeed, some captives did return to Dmitry after the war. Since Young Master Roman did not spare any of Kronos's prisoners to begin with, discussions regarding a subsequent prisoner exchange naturally never took place. If this transmission is real, then we can only conclude that the Kronos Empire lied at the negotiating table.’
This was a grave matter.
The ceasefire negotiations. At the very table where both sides agreed to end the war, the Kronos Empire had lied.
That meant... the nullification of the treaty.
If the existence of prisoners of war was revealed and Dmitry demanded accountability, it could, in the worst-case scenario, reignite the war. Jonathan's head began to throb. Dmitry was still in the process of stabilizing, yet the Kronos Empire's shallow lies threatened to throw everything back into chaos.
‘How will Young Master Roman react?’
During the war, Roman Dmitry had not let himself be bound by the existence of prisoners.
Rather than risking further sacrifices to save captured soldiers, he had decisively cut down the enemy to secure absolute victory. Everyone had agreed with Roman Dmitry's ruthless choice. If they had allowed themselves to be swayed by hostages against a superpower like Kronos, the war would have undoubtedly taken a much worse turn.
"Gather the data. We will report this to Young Master Roman and convene a meeting of the leadership."
Ultimately, the decision rested on Roman Dmitry's shoulders.
* * *
At the very moment Dmitry was thrown into a stir—
Yank.
A gloved hand violently grabbed a man's hair.
The man clutched the magic communication device, desperately trying to speak, but a brutal kick to his face cut him off, forcing a scream from his throat.
Crunch.
"Argh!"
His nose shattered, spraying blood across the floor.
As the man clutched his ruined face and curled inward, a heavy combat boot stomped down on the back of his skull.
Thud!
"Hey, you bastard. What did I tell you? I clearly said that if you just shut your mouth and focused on your work, I wouldn't kill you—even if you wouldn't exactly be living like a human. You're a complete lunatic. Why can't you understand when someone speaks to you?"
He kicked the man in the head again.
Grabbing him by the collar, he hauled him up and slapped him across the face multiple times.
Slap!
Slap, slap!
The man's head whipped violently back and forth.
Although the man's sturdy frame made him look physically stronger than his abuser, his gaunt face—likely hollowed out from starvation—showed he had no strength left to resist. The violence was relentless. Only when the man's face was drenched in blood and he was reduced to faint, unconscious groans did the abuser, presumably a knight, frown and shake the blood off his hands.
"Fuck, my hands actually hurt."
His name was Jason.
A knight of the Kronos Empire, he glared down at the broken man and growled as if he wanted to devour him.
"To think you'd steal a magic communication device just to contact Dmitry. You've got guts, I'll give you that. But let me ask you something out of pure curiosity. Do you honestly think Roman Dmitry will rush over here to save you just because you sent a little message? What a delusion. Roman Dmitry doesn't give a damn about prisoners."
He squatted down on the floor.
He grabbed the groaning man by the face, slapping him to force him awake whenever his eyes rolled back.
Slap!
"Listen carefully. In his war against us, Roman Dmitry didn't even entertain the idea of a 'prisoner exchange' and slaughtered every single soldier of the Kronos Empire. That is the reality of the master you serve. Dmitry is already stabilizing; do you think they'd worry about mere prisoners now? The ceasefire negotiations are over, you bastard. The fact that you weren't even mentioned at the negotiating table means Dmitry knows you exist, but chose not to overextend themselves to bring you back."
"N-No... that's not..."
"Like hell it isn't."
Slap!
His head whipped to the side.
Sweat and blood mingled, pooling on the cold stone floor. The man went completely limp.
Losing interest, Jason stood up and spoke to the soldiers waiting behind him.
"Take him to the torture chamber. Let's use this opportunity to show everyone exactly what happens to a rat who disobeys orders."
"Yes, sir!"
The soldiers hauled the unconscious man up.
Through this incident, the rest of Dmitry's prisoners would learn exactly what price they would pay for stepping out of line.
* * *
Thud.
"……Ugh."
The man was thrown onto the floor.
Horrific traces of torture marred his face and body. His upper body was covered in deep lacerations, leaving no patch of skin untouched. His fingernails and toenails had been entirely ripped out, the raw nailbeds oozing pus. Furthermore, his flesh was flushed an angry, blistering red. From having boiling water poured over him to enduring brutal shocks of lightning magic, parts of his skin were already undergoing necrosis.
"Carol!"
"Are you okay?!"
From the darkness of the cell, several men rushed over.
This was the prison for the captives, and Carol had been dumped back here after his agonizing torture session.
"Those fucking bastards!"
"How can a human being do this to another human?! If I ever get out of this prison alive, I will tear that devil Jason limb from limb. I'll kill him no matter what!"
The men cried out in sheer rage.
All of them were prisoners of Dmitry. They were individuals officially recorded as dead on paper. So how had they ended up rotting in this hellhole?
It all went back to the war.
When the Kronos Empire attacked the Western Front, many soldiers had been captured as the castle fell. At that time, countless prisoners were tortured to death by Hannibal. Carol and the remaining survivors had trembled in constant fear of execution, but when the Kronos Empire decided to advance their front lines, they moved a portion of the prisoners to the rear. Captives could act as a volatile element during an active campaign, so they were transferred to a territory in eastern Kronos called Maekhiton.
Sometime later, rumors spread that the war had ended.
Watching the enemy soldiers celebrating outside, the prisoners felt certain they would finally escape this hellhole. Yet, no matter how much time passed, no order came to release them. The atmosphere clearly indicated a ceasefire, but the way the Kronos soldiers looked at them was highly unsettling.
One day, Jason had approached them and said:
"Dmitry has abandoned you. I'll give you a choice. Quietly obey our orders and live as slaves of Maekhiton, or just die right now."
At that time, those who dared to speak up had their heads chopped off right in front of everyone.
To survive, the remaining prisoners chose slavery.
It was the beginning of hell.
Maekhiton had many places that required brutal manual labor, such as the local quarries. The prisoners were forced to perform grueling work while receiving barely enough food to sustain life. They toiled day and night. Even as they watched their comrades get crushed to death by falling rocks, they could not stop swinging their pickaxes.
If they disobeyed orders, pain immediately followed.
Merciless lashes of the whip tore through their raw, sunburnt skin.
Still, they endured.
They held onto the desperate belief that Dmitry would rescue them—until one of the prisoners overheard a devastating piece of news.
"...I heard that during the ceasefire negotiations, the Kronos Empire claimed there were no more prisoners. That's why Dmitry wrote off the missing soldiers as dead. In other words, we aren't living prisoners to them. We are already dead. Dmitry isn't coming to save us."
Despair consumed them.
Even their single ray of hope had vanished.
That was why Carol had risked his life. He wanted to let Dmitry know they were still alive, hoping against hope that Roman Dmitry would come to rescue them.
"Ugh... ah..."
Carol swallowed his groans.
Watching Carol writhe in agony, one of the men spoke.
"...We're finished. Carol couldn't even send a proper transmission, and since Dmitry has already signed the ceasefire agreement, they won't want to bring up our existence. They won't wage war against the Kronos Empire again just to save a few dozen or a few hundred lives. It's cruel, but... this is our reality."
His voice was thick with self-derision.
The men stared blankly, forced to confront their grim reality. Just like the broken, tortured Carol, they would all meet their ends as slaves here in Maekhiton.
* * *
At that same hour, in the conference room of Maekhiton, the leadership conversed with serious expressions.
"...Do you think Dmitry has noticed the existence of the prisoners?"
"Absolutely not. The prisoner's transmission was extremely brief, and because the flow of mana was unstable, the words wouldn't have been conveyed properly. Even if Dmitry did receive the transmission, it is impossible for them to fully grasp the situation from a few fragmented words."
"Hmph."
Despite Jason's reassuring words, the leaders could not put their minds at ease.
Baron Maekhiton spoke up.
"This is all because Roman Dmitry slaughtered all of our men. What a hypocrite. He acts as if he cares deeply for Dmitry's people, yet he massacred every single soldier of the Kronos Empire without a single thought for a prisoner exchange. Roman Dmitry must have known what consequences his actions would bring. Yet, he turned a blind eye to the truth and spared no one."
"Indeed. This is entirely Roman Dmitry's fault."
The ceasefire negotiations.
At that time, the Kronos Empire had already secured a large number of prisoners. However, orders had come down from High Command.
Since Dmitry held no prisoners of their own to exchange, the Kronos Empire refused to return Dmitry's prisoners for nothing. Thus, they concealed the captives' existence. At the negotiating table, they claimed to have already released all known prisoners, while behind the scenes, they secretly sent a portion of them to the quarries to be used as slave labor.
It was a petty act of revenge.
They hadn't worried about being discovered. If they made up their minds to hide the prisoners, Dmitry would have no way of knowing they were still alive.
However, a problem had arisen.
One of the prisoners had managed to establish a magic communication link with Dmitry.
Jason, the knight in charge of the camp, tried to smooth things over.
"There is no need for everyone to worry so much. Dmitry does not know of the prisoners' existence, and even if they did, overturning the board after signing a ceasefire agreement is no simple matter. Besides, didn't we carry this out under orders from High Command? Even if things go wrong, there is no reason for us to shoulder the blame."
The expressions of those in the room softened.
Just as Jason said, there was no reason to worry about something that hadn't even been discovered yet.
It was at that exact moment.
A soldier burst through the conference room doors, delivering news like a bolt from the blue.
"...M-My Lord! We have just received a report that Roman Dmitry has crossed the border with his forces!"
In an instant, everyone froze.
They had discussed various scenarios in the event of discovery, but an unannounced border invasion was a development their minds could not have possibly anticipated.