Chapter 85: Chapter 85

[Cruise mode terminated. Arrival at target.]

At the sound of Nill's mechanical voice coming from one side of Glaepnir's cockpit, Yaan opened the eyes he had kept shut.

The nanomachines that had seemed ready to burst through his blood vessels had calmed to some extent, yet the moment he severed the link a terrible wave of fatigue rolled over him.

When he asked the monitor before him, a flat mechanical voice answered.

[Continuous operational time 37 hours elapsed. New record for longest operation.]

"Shit, not exactly something to celebrate."

After grumbling he looked behind him; there, too, the Lorenz knights who had been pushed to their limits were returning to the frontline base one by one.

"No way! That fortress... really?"

Among those watching the colossuses return to the frontline base, a few muttered as if they had seen something that ought not to exist.

"Every last one of them is those Belkuth bastards."

"Why, does our return surprise you so much?"

Under the prince's order, the knights who had been forced into a hopeless assault and the Lorenz knights who had rushed to help them.

Beyond the colossus's observation window, murderous intent flared in their eyes as they studied the faces of the Belkuth knights.

Yet that murderous intent vanished at the sound of a single footstep.

The head who led them-Cain Lorenz's frame-was walking in.

The hatch of the dented silver colossus opened, and the one who had led this battle to victory revealed himself.

"I will deliver the victory report. Where is the Commander?"

Cain's voice was low and heavy.

Enemy numbers, defensive level, deployment, armament status.

The vanguard commander, sent out without a single reliable report, had overturned that hopeless situation and brought the central front's key stronghold to them.

A natural fortress that had stood unbroken for more than fifty years had fallen in a single day.

"Cain Lorenz! He did it!"

"The fortress fell the moment Lorenz joined the battle!"

"It's over! This war is Vailsar's victory!"

Cheering erupted; everywhere, reporters swarmed in.

Armor plates dented by assault guns, joints screeching, parts broken here and there.

Though their colossuses looked little better than battered remnants, the Lorenz banner draped over them like a cloak was untouched-showing who the true heroes of this battle were.

Flashes and shutter sounds greeted the knights returning from the battlefield. The correspondents clustered at the frontline base were elated: for once they could send the Empire a real victory report, not fabricated exploits or feel-good stories.

"Sir Cain! Over here, please!"

"You captured a fortress no one could breach for fifty years! A comment, please...!"

"Does House Lorenz intend to keep sending knights to the war?"

"Just one photo! This way...!"

Even into the colossus maintenance yard the reporters followed Cain, swarming around him the instant he dismounted.

"Gentlemen who've done nothing but print rubbish about knights-now you show up...!"

"Think we don't know what you've written about House Lorenz!?"

Knights who had seen these men flip their stance as easily as a hand now scowled and shoved the reporters back.

The last knight's shout carried even a faint trace of mana.

"Amusing. Reporters who once wrote only what Hiram dictated now flock to us." Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn novelFɪre.net

"Proof of how critical this battle was. Though I doubt Prince Gard wanted this outcome."

Counting reserves, the fortress had fielded roughly two hundred colossuses.

Add to that the fortress walls, fortress cannons, mages' mana cannons, and the terrain... Even if Glaepnir had leapt the gate to sow confusion, breaching it should have been impossible.

"The original plan was to break inside, capture or kill the commander, then withdraw. No one imagined we'd actually charge in and fight a melee...."

"We lost over twenty colossuses during the charge. Had we tried to withdraw from that chaos we'd have been fodder for the fortress guns immediately."

While the Lorenz knights held the reporters at bay, Yaan and Cain entered the command post to find Prince Klaus smiling wryly and Prince Gard's face flushed scarlet.

"Didn't expect to see you again, Cain."

"We've both too much left to do to die in a place ."

The two shared a grin and clasped hands; meanwhile Prince Gard approached Yaan.

"How did you make it back alive?"

Voice lowered, Prince Gard questioned Yaan, clearly unsettled.

Originally the plan had been for the Lorenz contingent to attack the walls and wear down the defenders before the main force took the fortress.

Seeing the scheme he had thought perfect collapse in the worst way, it was no wonder his mood soured.

"I fought as ordered, and I won."

"Don't joke! That's not what I mean!"

Prince Gard clenched his fist, but could do no more.

Already reporters were pressing in behind them, camera flashes popping.

"So well-behaved in front of the press? Did Count Hiram tell you to keep your temper?"

At Yaan's words Gard's already flushed face began to tremble.

His forcefully pushed plan had gone catastrophically wrong; he could already picture Hiram's thoughts.

"If you're not going to hit me here, control your expression. Your face is being photographed for the papers."

Hearing such words from Klaus-his rival-was a deep humiliation for Gard.

"I will file the report. Lieutenant Yaan, you..."

"Understood. Once I've checked the unit's status, I'll report."

"...Right. You worked hard. All of you."

At Cain's attempt to mediate, Yaan nodded, saluted briefly, and turned away.

Gard spat the words as Yaan vanished, but when Cain approached he merely clenched his fists.

"Douglas, Philip, Allen, Edgar...."

Dandel, eyes hollow, repeated the names on the roster he held in one hand and sighed.

The final count: twenty-one of the fifty company members committed to the operation had fallen.

Half the company wiped out in an instant.

"Ah, C-Company Commander."

Hearing Yaan's voice, Dandel turned.

Yaan in full uniform was walking toward him.

"The dead-were you able to recover the bodies?"

"We secured only five. The rest..."

Unable to finish, Dandel trailed off and looked toward the corpses laid out on one side of the company barracks.

Goblins and orcs never leave human corpses untouched.

The goblins, notorious man-eaters, devour every scrap, leaving not a bone; orcs take the heads as trophies.

That any bodies remained intact at all was already a miracle.

A quiet weeping came from among the gathered corpses.

A small girl with short platinum hair.

"Allen-listed among the dead-was my first training instructor. Took good care of me, said it was a shame I came so young."

"We couldn't recover it."

After a small sigh, Yaan reached his hand out toward Dandel.

Dandel's eyes grew deeper as he checked what Yaan was offering with a bewildered expression.

"In the midst of all that... you found them all, sir."

Their names engraved on a small metal plate. It was the dog tags of the sixteen whose corpses could not be found.

"Confirm nothing is missing and sort the belongings. Look into their family relations as well."

At Yaan's words, Dandel nodded and turned, running toward the barracks office.

After watching him for a moment, Yaan approached Irene, who was sobbing among the corpses.

"Outside they are preparing hymns to honor the knights who fell in battle."

At Yaan's words, Irene flinched and looked up at him.

It seemed she hadn't noticed his arrival until then.

"Compared to them, those who were sent on the most dangerous mission weren't even loaded onto the transport vehicles."

The place where their corpses lay was not the gathering spot for the fallen, but an empty warehouse of the 87th Independent Company.

"This is the death of the Penal Corps. They are not even counted as casualties. No one will ever know that these guys died here."

Listening to the deaths recounted so matter-of-factly in a dry tone, Irene forcibly hid her streaming tears.

"Your Highness, the knights' memorial service is tomorrow. Today you should prepare for it..."

"These are my soldiers as well. Had it not been for them, dozens more knights stationed at the fortress would have died to the mana cannons. Are you telling me to turn away from that?"

"But they are the Penal Corps! Mourning criminals is against the dignity of the Imperial House...!"

"What does dignity matter in the face of a person's death! Get lost!"

Hearing the argument from afar, Yaan and Irene turned their gazes.

Prince Klaus, his expression hardened, was walking toward the Penal Corps warehouse with attendants in tow.

"Are those the 87th Company's casualties?"

When Klaus asked him, Yaan answered quietly.

"Twenty-six including these individuals. With the fighting force short, conducting operations for the time being will be difficult."

"That is not what I asked."

Speaking thus, Prince Klaus approached the corpses; he was not wearing the casual shirt they usually saw him in.

A neat red uniform and a black cloak signifying mourning for the dead.

And in one hand he held an ornately decorated box.

"Even if they are Penal Corps... to think it came to this..."

Clenching his teeth as he looked at their corpses, Prince Klaus shut his eyes tight.

"Their supplies, living conditions-those were luxuries far too generous for those who enlisted in the Penal Corps. They should have no regrets."

When Prince Klaus finished speaking and gestured to the attendants supporting him, the black-clad figures began to move in perfect order.

They removed the cloth covering the corpses and laid over them the Imperial Army's flag bearing the Empire's crest, and Prince Klaus approached and began placing something on each of the five corpses.

"Second-class casualty medals. Given to Imperial Army soldiers who die in battle."

After laying a medal on each corpse, Prince Klaus adjusted the folds of the cloth that wrapped them, and eventually bowed his head toward them.

"Y-Your Highness...!"

At his action, the attendants, and even Dandel who had entered to report, turned pale.

For royalty to bow their head was a courtesy reserved for mourning knights or those of equal standing.

"If only I had entered the succession struggle a little sooner... if I could have stopped Brother Gard, the situation might have been different."

Prince Klaus spoke with his head still bowed, his face filled with regret.

"I was afraid of that... I loathed stepping into the world so I dragged my feet. And so, all I can do for you now... is this paltry thing."

Raising his head, Prince Klaus looked at Yaan.

"I will become Emperor. And I will remember you. In the name of Klaus van Vailsar, thirteenth prince of the Vailsar Empire, I make this promise before you."

Speaking thus, Klaus handed the box to Yaan and saluted.

Inside the box he received were the names of the sixteen whose corpses could not be found.

"...With this much, well, those guys should be satisfied."

Smiling wryly, Yaan saluted Klaus while facing Cain.

"Yaan Verkut, company commander of the 87th Independent Company. I will place my trust in Your Highness's promise and offer my support."