Betrayed by the Empire
The village was engulfed in flames, raging infernally as it burned to ash. Screams of agony pierced the air from every corner, while armed Imperial soldiers moved through the homes like they owned them, rifling through kitchens and loading carts with grain and goods.
“W-what kind of atrocity is this?! How can the Empire’s warriors do this to us…!”
“Don’t, Davy! It’s dangerous—stop!”
A man voiced his outrage and disbelief, his voice trembling with shock and fury, while a woman tried desperately to hold him back.
Yet even as they saw the Imperial general, who bore the proud bearing of a native-born soldier despite his ornate uniform, speaking in a coldly detached tone, they could only stare in horror.
“Pathetic. If you had simply surrendered the supplies without resistance, there would have been no bloodshed. Everything you suffer is your own doing.”
“I did warn you! We had nothing left! This is the price of our loyalty?!”
“Amusing. Calling that loyalty? True loyalty is offering everything without reservation for the lord—your home, your property, your very life!”
“Y-you… you bastard…”
The native-born general spoke with shameless arrogance. Watching the man who had only days ago seemed like a just and righteous hero now reveal such a grotesque side, the settler’s anger boiled over. He tore the gun from his back.
“D-Davy!”
“I… I was a fool. I trusted those bastards! What kind of loyalty is that… what kind of Imperial subject are they? Because of these worms, I’ve… I’ve lost everything I held dear until now…”
Tears streaming down his face, he pressed the barrel to the general’s head.
But…
*Bang!*
“!!!”
“…Huh?”
A moment later, the woman who had tried to stop him felt a wave of searing heat.
As she realized too late what it was…
A voice choked with despair tore from her lips.
“Ah… ahhh…”
“Raising a gun at me, General Gand, a man of the Empire? That is treason. Under Imperial law, a traitor shall be executed on the spot.”
With those words, the general crushed the man’s skull beneath his boot like a rotten tomato and strode away, leaving the village in ruins.
Behind him, the Imperial soldiers who had sacked the village marched out, carts laden with stolen grain and goods.
A massacre completed in mere hours.
Crushed under the boot of Imperial tyranny were the years of loyalty and patriotism she had carried like a shield. Jane McCree could only stare numbly at the flames, unable to tear her eyes away from the horror.
*How… how could they do this to us…*
*
Sitting before the emaciated settler woman, Franklin asked carefully, “Tell me everything. What exactly happened?”
Though she had heard the summary, Franklin wanted the full account.
The general’s dignified tone carried authority.
“Y-yes… I will… I will tell you everything.”
The woman—Jane, she introduced herself—trembled as she began to recount her story, the words fighting their way out even as they cut like knives.
*
A woman in her late teens, with brown hair and striking blue eyes.
Jane McCree.
A colonial settler, she had never paid much attention to the war—only a mild irritation whenever she heard distant gunfire.
The conflict between the Britain Empire and the Colonial rebels had dragged on for two years.
During that time, the rebels fought under the banner of freedom, yet many colonial settlers still questioned whether independence was even necessary.
Among them were those who still held fervent loyalty to the Empire, just like Jane’s own fiancé, Davy Jones.
Davy had inherited his family’s unwavering devotion to the Empire and the Emperor since childhood.
He despised the rebels for stirring needless chaos and prayed every day for the Britain Empire to crush this rebellion.
Jane shared those same feelings.
Though news of the Empire’s cruelty reached them from other regions, their own village had remained untouched, and the Imperial army had even driven out brutal native auxiliaries. Jane felt gratitude to the Empire and believed loyalty was the only path.
As a result, the settlers in their area gladly offered their village as a forward base for the Empire.
Yet that kindness had been repaid in the most horrific way imaginable only days earlier.
Gand, a native-born general serving in the Imperial army and a member of the Mok Tribe, had arrived with four hundred armed soldiers.
He demanded an immediate surrender of one hundred bags of corn—nearly seventy percent of the village’s entire grain stores—along with other supplies.
Although the requisition bore the seal of General Neto, the commanding officer of the region, even Davy, the most devoted Imperial loyalist present, could not accept it.
One hundred bags of corn meant they would starve through the coming winter.
Davy and Jane politely refused and offered a compromise, but before their words could finish, Gand’s order came.
Burn the village. Take everything.
The Imperial army’s slaughter and looting began.
In the chaos, Davy died. Other settlers lost family members or suffered grave wounds. The entire village was reduced to smoldering ruins.
Jane and the survivors who somehow escaped with their lives had lost everything they held dear—loved ones, homes, and the faith that had sustained them.
Now only shells remained.
They chose the only path left: revenge.
To drive a blade into the backs of those traitorous Empire bastards no matter the cost.
Driven by that burning hatred, they began walking toward the rebels, the very people they had once scorned or prayed would vanish.
*
“…That is what happened. According to the reports that reached us later… General Gand received no punishment whatsoever.”
“Such a pity. To be betrayed so thoroughly by those you trusted…”
The moment Jane’s tale of hatred ended, Franklin spoke in a voice that was icy yet carried the quiet fury of a human being.
“It is hard to believe, but it is true. And now… all that remains is to fight them until we die.”
“Hmm…”
Jane spoke with blazing hatred and an even deeper resolve.
Franklin nodded quietly.
Then, with desperate, broken fervor, Jane pleaded, “General, please… please give us a chance. Any way you like. As long as we can inflict even a single wound on those filthy Imperial dogs, we will do anything. Use us as ordinary soldiers. Or worse—use us as targets. Anything! Just give us the chance to avenge the Empire!”
Watching Jane sit there, her eyes burning with clear enmity, Franklin began to weigh how to make use of her.
*Her will is strong, but… I don’t think she’ll be that useful. Not with her numbers, either.*
At most thirty of them remained. Half were elderly, and the rest were barely past their teenage years.
And the woman before her—Jane—could not wield magic, had no special combat training, and was nothing but a plain, ordinary human.
In a battlefield, she would only be a hindrance.
Her will was admirable, but her usefulness was limited, in Franklin’s cold assessment.
*Well… there’s no reason to refuse someone who came anyway. Even if it’s just fodder in the fighting, we can use her for something simple.*
Franklin prepared to dismiss the matter.
“I understand. Then let’s assign a few tasks inside the fortress…”
“Wait, General.”
“Hm?”
A familiar voice suddenly cut in.
Franklin felt a surge of relief and hope, straightened her expression, and turned toward the sound.
“I heard everything. Forgive me for interrupting, General.”
With those words, Cromwell took his seat under Franklin’s permission.
Observing the sudden arrival, Franklin asked cautiously, “What is it, Cromwell? Did you come with something to say to her?”
“Yes. And… something only she can do. A matter of utmost importance.”
“!!!”
