Chapter 77：Consequence

From the safety of Sicilia's safe house, Rose was able to witness the skirmish break out between the forces of the Confederacy and the forces of Jardim's city guard, most of which were of Portegeese decent through the windows.

The fierce sounds of gunshots and the horrible screams and groans of men penetrated the safe house's walls while the stuffy smell of smoke managed to leak into the room.

Not even a minute passed since the first ship of Rose's 'trade fleet' docked on the docklands when armed men streamed out of the ship or fired from the ship's decks, quickly overwhelming the paltry Portegeese forces that guarded the docks.

Not a single city guard who tried to oppose the sudden invaders whom were allowed to freely dock was able to put up a decent resistance. The defensive cannons that were supposed to defend against invading ships were quickly rendered useless as they were captured by the Confederate soldiers.

While the proficiency by which the Confederates fought with the use of their musket's bayonet and through how quickly they were able to reload their weapons was indeed impressive, that was not what impressed Rose the most about the Confederates' performance.

What impressed Rose the most was how disciplined the Confederate forces were as they swiftly took over the docklands, never explicitly harming non-combatants unless absolutely necessary.

Each soldier kept a straight yet stern face without any displays of sadist joy or disgruntled unease on their faces as they fought.

This wasn't what Rose expected from a force which was portrayed by the Paniards to consist of nothing more than bloodthirsty monsters.

It would seem that Sicilia's statement that the Paniards have consistently lied with propaganda was true after all.

With this amazing sight, Rose couldn't help but stand silently in amazement and to just simply let everything unfold.

After all, her role was fulfilled.

She let the Confederates in.

Now all she can do was watch the consequences of her actions.

"I see you are enjoying the show."

Soon, Rose's thoughts were interrupted by Sicilia as the latter walked up close to her. Although Rose continued to stare out the window and thus didn't turn around to glance at Sicilia, she was sure that the silver-haired Drussian was probably wearing a confident smile at this moment.

Nevertheless, Rose still allowed Sicilia to continue speaking.

"Do you mind if a vent a few of my feelings at this moment?"

Rose would only give an indifferent reply to Sicilia as her response.

"I don't see a reason not to."

"Now that's exactly what I wanted to hear. I just... I just wanted to have someone to talk to. Granted, I can still talk to my wraiths but they aren't really the talkative types if you know what I mean. It's just nice to-"

Rose chose to partially ignore whatever words were coming and instead focused the majority of her attention outside of the windows and onto the newly developed battlefield.

When excluding Sicilia's voice, Rose only silently watched the Confederates swiftly overtake the docklands. From her point of view, the docklands were already overtaken with only a few sparse moments of resistance every now and then.

Small groups of men or even a single man would often rush out of a building with a weapon, whether it was a loaded musket or a simple sabre in hand in an attempt to fight off the Confederates.

Some of these men weren't even in the uniform of the city guards as they fought in vein to repel the sudden invaders. There was no doubt that those men and even women were just regular civilians whose first response was to fight rather than to run for their lives.

And yet, they were all cut down by the Confederate soldiers all the same.

"All of this is for the greater good.

This is for the greater good.

This is for the greater good."

Those were the words that Rose kept repeating inside her head.

After all, she was currently watching what was in essence, her subjects, her own people die right in front of her very eyes.

And the one that was responsible for the deaths of said Portegeese citizens was none other than Rose herself.

How could she not be repeatedly assuring herself that what she had just done and everything that was happening was a 'necessary' evil?

Despite all of the thoughts that ran through Rose's head, Sicilia continued speaking aloud as if she were having a casual, informal conversation with one of her close friends. If it was because she either did not notice Rose's feelings or if she simply did not care, Rose had no idea.

Whatever the reason may be, that did not change the fact that Sicilia was doing exactly what she said was going to do.

Vent her feelings.

"Like, I don't have a problem with doing the dirty work, honestly I don't. But having subordinates do everything for you while all you need to do is sit back, wait and hope that they didn't fail is so much better. Granted, that is a gross simplification and glorification of what I actually do but it's not entirely false."

Sicilia paused to chuckle to herself for a few short moments before she continued speaking.

"Times like these make me envy my brothers for choosing 'the right path' so to speak. Did you know that even though I am responsible for quite a sizeable amount of the Imperium's feats, most of the fame instead goes to my brothers? I know right?! It's crazy!"

Rose gradually started to feel perturbed the more that Sicilia spoke.

When Rose first met Sicilia, she gave of an domineering aura of mystery and malevolence.

Now, Sicilia was acting like she was having a mental breakdown.

Like before, Sicilia bursted in a short moment of laughter that echoed through the room, however, unlike before, for some reason, this laugher sent a metaphorical chill down Rose's spine.

She did not know why, but she suddenly had a bad feeling about all of this.

"Ahahaha! I work myself to the bone when compared to my siblings and I am always stuck in the mud! Stuck to clean up whatever mess they need taken care of! It honestly makes me regret my past actions. Eheh... eheheheh..."

Without warning, Sicilia's vent was suddenly interrupted by her own snickering. And of course, Rose had a very bad feeling about that snickering.

"Take it from me when I say this."

When Sicilia said this, her voice abruptly slowed down, as if she wanted to slowly emphasise every single one of her words. Soon, whatever traces of Sicilia 'mental breakdown' quickly disappeared as she returned to her typical sarcastic and cynical manner that was somehow shrouded with a veil of mystery.

Was Sicilia only merely faking it? While Rose certainly couldn't rule out the possibility, it was simply to unbelievable to actually... believe.

From the almost transparent reflection from the window, Rose was able to spot Sicilia's mouth twist upwards into a cruel smile while her eyes remained almost comically benevolent and loving. It was a literal display of the word 'contrast,' which only served to make Rose's bad feeling multiply tenfold.

Rose quickly grew oblivious to the events of the battle outside as she listened to the words that slowly came out of Sicilia's twisted smile.

"When you see the consequences of your past choice. You must remember. You have absolutely no one to blame... No one to blame... but yourself."

"And you're telling me this why?!"

No longer able to tolerate Sicilia's actions, Rose whipped around her body to face Sicilia before demanding an explanation.

"What the hell are you playing at?!"

Sicilia's twisted smile receded to a faint smile as she replied to Rose with a softer, almost mockingly 'kind' voice.

"Do you remember that promise I made in exchange for your 'cooperation?'"

Rose's eyebrows drew together in a combination of both confusion and frustration as she thought about that promise made by Sicilia. With a slight tinge of unease in her voice, Rose gave her reply to Sicilia.

"Yes... I made you promise not to kill my younger sister. Anything else I'm willing to tolerate as long as Panish influence is wiped from this city..."

When Sicilia heard Rose's answer, she once again chuckled before she responded to Rose.

"No... The promise is a bit more specific than that. You made me promise that your sister; Lily will not be another one of the city's unfortunate casualties during the operation."

Although Rose knew that it probably wasn't anything good, she still couldn't figure out the implication behind Sicilia's words, thus prompting Rose to further probe into the situation.

"Yeah so?.. What's the difference..."

"Come on now... You and I both know that you're smarter than that. You made me promise that Lily will not die in the city..."

Rose's eyes suddenly widened in shock when a flash of realisation came across her mind.

Her voice trembled as she stuttered out her response to Sicilia.

"N-no... Y-you didn't... y-you couldn't... There's... there's no way... no way you could do such a thing."

Sicilia's faint smile curved back into that twisted smile when she replied to Rose.

"Oh but I already have..."

"But... Lily is probably still in the cliffside mansion! The mansion still falls within the city's territory!"

Sicilia only shrugged casually as she dismissed what Rose believed to be a perfectly reasonable response.

"Not according to Drussian law it is."

"W-what?.."

In response to Rose, Sicilia shook her head in a joking manner before she explained herself.

"Due to the objectives of the invasion of this city being to overtake the current governing officials which include your sister, by our law, this city is recognised as under our control before we relinquish control of the city to you."

Rose lapsed into silence as her mouth continued to hang open, in complete awe of what she was hearing.

"As such, what 'is' and 'isn't' part of this city is decided by Drussian law. And Drussian law states that land which is not enclosed within the city's walls cannot be recognised as the city's territory. 'Unfortunately,' Finaflor mansion does not fulfil the requirements to be recognised as 'part' of this city."

Rose didn't know what kind of expression she held on her face when she heard Sicilia's final remark. From the tone of her voice, it was almost as if she was enjoying this moment.

"Oh you can wipe that look of dispair of your face, as far as I know the soldiers are under orders to arrest both of your sisters and to only kill them on the first signs of resistance. Of course you still have the chance to 'save' your sister before our forces reach the mansion."

Sicilia paused for a short moment before she took out her pocket and glanced at the time before she resumed speaking.

"I estimate that you have less than thirty minutes to reach the manor before our forces."

This time, when Sicilia spoke, her smile was neither twisted nor faint. Instead her it was just a simple cold slime that emphasised the monster that she truly was.

"Good luck Rose. You're going to need it."