Chapter 319: Prisoners of War (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 319: Prisoners of War (4)
It was checkmate for Count Munez.
His superiors had turned a blind eye to the situation, and Roman Dmitry was taking extreme measures. Caught in the middle with his own life on the line, he screamed at his men to bring out the prisoners just to survive.
As a result...
"...We have brought out all the prisoners."
Speaking in place of the deceased Baron Maekhiton, Baron Brighton—another noble of the Eastern Region—spoke with a face pale from terror. He had no other choice. While the first batch of prisoners had been in relatively decent shape, the state of the group brought out now was utterly horrific.
The atmosphere turned icy. Behind Roman Dmitry, the watching soldiers of Dmitry could not hide their fury.
The prisoners.
These men were their comrades.
Breathing heavily with tightly clenched jaws, they looked ready to draw their swords and charge at a single command.
Among them, Lucas stepped forward.
"This does not match the list compiled by the Information Guild. There are still prisoners missing from this group."
"Is that so?"
In an instant, the atmosphere grew even more murderous.
As the soldiers glared at him as though they would slaughter him on the spot for continuing to lie, Baron Brighton gasped and waved his hands in a panic.
"N-No, that's not it! We really brought everyone! I don't know what criteria your list was based on, but... if there are prisoners who aren't here, they must have died before this. They absolutely did not die because of us! As you know, many prisoners of war are already in terrible shape when they are first captured, aren't they? Those people fell ill and passed away shortly after."
He knew it too. It was a lie that would be exposed immediately.
The surviving prisoners present had clearly witnessed their comrades dying under torture, but Brighton blurted out whatever came to mind just to survive the immediate crisis. In truth, quite a few had indeed died from battle wounds. But regardless of the truth, he knew he could never reveal that the rest had been tortured to death.
Roman Dmitry scanned the prisoners.
They were all in terrible shape.
Though they clearly bore the scars of their horrific ordeal, they wore complex expressions upon seeing that Roman Dmitry had come to rescue them. While they felt immense joy and relief at being alive, they were also filled with grief and pain at the thought of the comrades they had lost. Their current emotions were beyond words.
His gaze stopped.
Looking at a man who appeared to have been tortured most recently, Roman turned his eyes back to Baron Brighton.
"To my eyes, it looks like they were tortured. If so, then many of those who are absent must have died from that very same torture."
Brighton was speechless. There was no excuse he could make.
While Baron Brighton's eyes darted around frantically, Roman Dmitry approached the battered man.
"Carol. What happened to you during this time?"
*
When they were first told they were being released, Carol and the others had doubted the reality before their eyes.
"Roman Dmitry crossed the border to rescue you. You may rejoice. You are going back to Dmitry."
Their hearts had skipped a beat. It was unbelievable. Even as they boarded the carriages for transport, they could not accept that it was real.
...Did he really come to save us just from that brief contact?
They were dazed.
Carol's magic communication. It had only connected for about three seconds, and due to the unstable connection, he hadn't even been able to convey his words properly. Because of that, the prisoners had fallen into despair. Carol had risked his life to seize that final opportunity, but thinking it had ended in complete failure, they were certain it was over. What kind of future awaited them? They would live and die namelessly in a quarry, forced into grueling labor until their bodies gave out.
But now, they were told Dmitry had come to rescue them.
The realization that they had not been abandoned brought a sudden, overwhelming surge of emotion.
"...Thank you. Thank you so much."
Sob...
Inside the carriage, weeping spread like wildfire.
Burly soldiers who used to boast that real men shouldn't cry now wept like children. Their tears would not stop. They were truly grateful. If Roman Dmitry had dismissed Carol's magic communication as a mere anomaly, he could have easily ignored it. Instead, he had paid attention to even the slightest possibility. And once he was certain there were prisoners of war, he had boldly crossed the border of the Kronos Empire to demand their return.
They knew it was not an easy decision.
Leaders of nations usually handled everything with extreme caution due to political interests. They typically chose to sacrifice the few, especially when it came to matters that could escalate into all-out war. Think about it. Who would put countless lives at risk just to save a few hundred people whose survival couldn't even be confirmed? For that reason, commoners were often helplessly trampled like insignificant ants.
Prisoners of war were a highly sensitive issue.
Knowing this, Roman Dmitry showed through his actions that he was prepared for war from the very beginning. He crossed the border. He drew his sword. His fierce determination to get his people back, even at the cost of war, had brought the prisoners back to where they belonged.
And now.
"Carol. What happened to you during this time?"
Meeting the gaze fixed upon him, Carol's eyes trembled.
Just the fact that he had come to rescue them was enough to be deeply grateful for, but Roman Dmitry even remembered his name and asked about what had happened to him. He had no memory of ever speaking with Roman personally. This meant his liege had specifically looked into him for this moment. Overwhelmed by a rush of emotion, Carol covered his face and burst into tears.
This man.
He is my liege.
Carol, who had remained steadfast even while being tortured, now spoke of his ordeal with a face drenched in tears.
"...We were tortured. We were abused. They treated us like beasts, forcing us to work in the quarry day and night, whipping us mercilessly if we showed even the slightest sign of resting. My Liege... I still cannot forget the sight of my comrade dying next to me, crushed under a boulder. As he gasped for breath and begged for his life, those demonic bastards of the Kronos Empire merely mocked him and spat in his face. That is why I risked my life. Because I hoped you would rescue us from this abyss of despair, I grabbed the magic communicator and revealed our existence."
His voice trembled. Growing increasingly emotional, he cried out as if vomiting up all his past suffering.
"Do you know what the most painful part was while they pulled out my fingernails, tore off my toenails, and sliced away my skin? It was the lies of Kronos that turned my stomach. Dmitry is not a place that would abandon its own people, yet I could not tolerate the fact that the despicable Kronos Empire was hiding the truth and proceeding with ceasefire negotiations."
It was a desperate plea. It wasn't a well-organized speech, but a raw cry for someone to listen to what he had endured. Like a child running to their father to complain of an injustice, Roman Dmitry was that kind of pillar of support to Carol.
How much had he poured out? His tears ran dry.
He had cried so much that he could barely make a sound anymore.
Roman Dmitry listened to his plea until the very end. In the space where silence had fallen over everyone except the two of them, the soldiers of Kronos did not dare utter a single word.
It felt like they couldn't even breathe. Just looking at Roman Dmitry suffocated them.
Finally, when Carol had poured out all his emotions, Roman Dmitry asked,
"Who did this to you?"
At those words, Carol turned his head and pointed a trembling finger at a man.
That man was none other than Jason.
*
Jason's face twisted in panic.
He hurriedly tried to explain his way out of the situation, but in an instant, a scream of agonizing pain ripped from his throat.
Slash!
"Aaargh!"
The hand he had been waving frantically was severed, sent flying through the air.
As he tried to flee with a face pale from terror, blood sprayed from his Achilles tendon, and his balance collapsed.
Thud!
He tumbled across the ground.
Having lost his hand, he couldn't support himself, and with his Achilles tendon severed, his face slammed into the dirt repeatedly like a newborn calf trying to stand. His body trembled violently. He had never imagined that he—the man who had held absolute power while torturing Carol—would be reduced to such a pathetic state.
Roman Dmitry approached Jason.
Baron Brighton backed away from between them, pleading in a desperate voice.
"P-Please, stop this now! Didn't we comply with all your demands to bring out the prisoners?!"
Grab.
Roman grabbed Jason by the hair.
After having his head slammed into the ground several times, Jason, bleeding heavily from his forehead, wept and sniveled in sheer terror.
"This piece of trash tortured my people. Then I must return the favor in kind. No... I must pay him back tenfold."
There would be no compromise. Roman Dmitry drew a dagger.
From then on, a horrific scene unfolded.
Roman sliced away Jason's flesh while he was still alive, pinning his face down as he thrashed and begged for mercy. Resistance was utterly futile. Slowly, very slowly, Roman Dmitry chose the most agonizing methods of torture while keeping Jason alive. Refined martial arts like the Bone-Twisting Technique were a luxury for this bastard. Only a highly visible, blood-splattering torture could break both his body and mind simultaneously.
Atop the castle walls, the soldiers of the Kronos Empire covered their mouths.
Screams echoed, and blood splattered. They turned their eyes away. They couldn't bear to look directly at a living person being butchered.
Yet, none of Dmitry's soldiers looked away.
They accepted Roman Dmitry's cruelty exactly as it was. They knew that this viciousness would never be directed at them. Therefore, they did not turn away, watching until the very end as the lord they followed exacted Carol's revenge.
Eventually, Jason's body went limp.
Roman Dmitry stood up and swept back his blood-stained hair.
And then, he spoke.
"Count Munez. Contact your superiors right now."
Looking up at the castle walls, Roman flashed a blood-stained smile.
*
The magic communication connected.
Having already been briefed on the situation, Marquis Memphis spoke in a stiff voice through the communicator.
[Roman Dmitry. Not only did you cross the border without warning, but recklessly killing the people of the Kronos Empire is crossing the line. If you stop now, we will partially acknowledge our responsibility for failing to manage our subordinates properly and put an end to this matter.]
The series of events had completely crossed the line.
If Roman had stopped at a reasonable point and only held Baron Maekhiton responsible, Marquis Memphis would not have been this furious. The problem was the process. Roman had unilaterally crossed the border and killed both Baron Maekhiton and Jason in front of everyone. And in an extremely painful manner, at that. The sight of Baron Maekhiton, whose face was swollen from being beaten to a pulp, and Jason, who had writhed in agony, directly trampled upon the pride of the Kronos Empire.
It felt as if their patience was being tested, daring them to see how much they could endure.
To Marquis Memphis, whose voice boiled with rage, Roman Dmitry said,
"Whether I stop or not is not for you to decide. This incident—regardless of whose responsibility you concluded it was internally—such pathetic excuses do not matter to me. From now on, I will give you a chance to prove your sincerity. I intend to slaughter everyone in this frontline defense position as payment for the lives of my people who died under torture. If you still wish to admit your mistake and maintain the ceasefire agreement even after that, I will withdraw once I burn this place to the ground."
[Why on earth are you going this far?! You have recovered all of Dmitry's prisoners and even brutally killed those involved! Is even this not enough?!]
Roman smirked.
With a sneer, he conveyed his true feelings to Marquis Memphis on the other end of the line.
"Because only then will you understand. There must be a precedent showing that things do not end easily when dealing with me. Only then will you realize you cannot just wrap things up with pathetic excuses next time."
[You crazy bas—]
Click.
He cut off the communication.
And then...
"Kill every last enemy."
At the calmly delivered command, the soldiers of Dmitry charged forward all at once.