Chapter 109
“...Is this the end?”
The battlefield was drenched in blood.
Over five thousand soldiers from the allied forces had fallen.
Piaren, holding his blood stained sword, gazed at the main force.
If they wanted to, they could still seize Sragan.
But there was no reason to sacrifice ten thousand soldiers just to take this place.
‘This place has already lost its value.’
Moreover, the ten thousand soldiers were merely the remaining forces left to capture Sragan.
They had managed to hold on this long only because Piaren himself had stayed behind with them.
“There’s no point in lingering over land that doesn’t even have the royal family of the Spanian Kingdom.”
It was a kingdom that had already been destroyed.
There was no need to sacrifice his own men needlessly.
“We’ll retreat. Move to the rear and join up with Milo.”
By now, Milo must have dealt with those troublesome ones.
“Inform Roberta. Order the troops to fall back.”
“Yes, sir.”
At Piaren’s command, the knight next to him took out the horn hanging from his waist.
Boooooo!
As the horn was blown, Piaren turned his horse around.
He had completed his task, and now it was time to return to the homeland.
But when he moved to the rear of the troops, he heard a shocking report.
“...Annihilated?”
The news that his own knight order, led by Milo, had been wiped out.
It was such an absurd situation that Piaren was momentarily at a loss for words.
“W-Where?”
“...I’ll take you there.”
The soldier who delivered the news led the way, his expression grim, toward a hill next to Sragan.
By then, the Empire’s soldiers were already collecting the bodies of the fallen Rose knights.
Step... step...
Piaren watched his fallen subordinates with a hollow expression.
Gruesome sword wounds.
The expressions of those who had died still conveyed the emotions they felt at that moment.
Piaren bit his lip hard.
And then...
“...”
A headless corpse.
The body clad in a familiar armor.
It was clear at a glance that it was Milo.
They had taken only the head of the vice-commander of the Rose knight Order as a trophy.
Shudder.
His tightly clenched fists trembled uncontrollably.
His anger surged up to the top of his head.
Crunch!
Blood flowed from his tightly clenched lips and fists.
What had happened here?
“Damn... damn it... Aaaaahhhhhh!”
Piaren’s furious roar echoed throughout the entire hill.
His mana, released in a fit of rage, surged around him as if it were going berserk.
“Ugh!”
“Argh!”
The regular soldiers grabbed their chests and fell to their knees under the pressure of Piaren’s overwhelming presence.
Has there ever been such an unhinged Piaren?
No, more than that, his presence was so suffocating that it felt like they would die just from being near him.
“L-Lord Piaren!”
At that moment, a knight from the Rose knight Order called out to Piaren.
The sound of his voice made Piaren’s eyes grow cold.
“Berner.”
“At your command, sir.”
The knight, called Berner, awaited Piaren’s orders.
Piaren spoke.
“Find them. Find out who they are and report back to me.”
He would repay this debt without fail.
Even if it meant chasing them to the ends of the earth.
Of course...
‘He must be grinding his teeth as well.’
The sorrow of losing half his men.
And the tarnishing of his reputation as an Aura Master.
He would surely come for them.
They would have to prepare for that day when they faced him again...
‘We have to get ready as well.’
And I too,
Had learned a lot from this battle.
There was much to be done in the future. But for now...
‘Tonight...’
He would simply mourn for his fallen comrades.
The soldiers of the Caion unit stayed by the blazing flames all night, saying their final farewells to their fallen brothers.
* * *
“Ugh... Ah...”
“Argh... I’m going to die.”
The emergency treatments had been completed.
But after finishing the cremation of their comrades, the Caion soldiers were lying in their places, groaning in pain.
The medics looked at them, unable to hide their disbelief.
“Crazy... They held a funeral for their comrades with these injuries...?”
“This is insane. How did they manage with such wounds...?”
“What kind of battle did they fight?”
Honestly, except for a few, there wasn’t anyone who was in good shape.
A medic turned to Damian, who was standing nearby, and asked,
“What happened here?”
“...Something worthy of being recorded in history?”
At Damian’s words, the medic frowned slightly, tilting his head in confusion.
What did he mean by that?
But then Damian pulled out some herbs he had brought and handed them to the medic.
“Use all of this if you have to. Don’t hold back on the herbs... Heal them quickly. Without leaving scars.”
“...I’ll do my best, but it’s inevitable that they’ll have scars.”
How could there not be scars when they had been pierced by swords?
Damian just patted the medics on the shoulder and walked out of the tent.
And then—
“Let’s have a talk.”
Damian followed Leonhark, who had approached him by now.
“You engaged the Rose knight Order in full-scale combat. What were you thinking?”
“...I thought that when their commander left and they were split in half, that was the best opportunity to face them.”
“That was reckless. Your men are much stronger than regular soldiers, but they are not yet ready to take on a knight order.”
Leonhark knew it too.
Each member of the Caion unit possessed skills superior to most lower-ranked knights.
“But their opponents were the Rose knight Order. They are among the top five in the Empire in terms of skill...”
“...I’m sorry.”
“Even so... it’s impressive. You wiped out half of them, delivering a significant blow to the Empire.”
Many soldiers had died in this war.
However, if we looked at the overall strength, it was safe to say that the Empire had suffered a far greater loss.
“Prepare to send off the fallen soldiers properly. I’ll also send letters to their families.”
“I... I’ll go to their families myself. For those who are too far, we’ll have to send someone, but... I’d like to go by myself.”
“...Do as you wish.”
The death of a fellow soldier who had trained alongside them was always heartbreaking.
But everyone knew that it was their sacrifice that allowed the kingdom to move forward.
A soldier could die at any time, and that was the nature of the battlefield.
Looking at Leonhark’s somber expression, Damian stepped outside. And then—
“...Vice-commander.”
“How are your wounds?”
“I’m not that bad. It’s the others who are in serious condition.”
Damian’s body was also covered in many large and small wounds. But Damian showed no sign of it outwardly.
Seeing this, Dianal fell silent, and Damian, noticing this, spoke.
“If you’re alright, can you come with me?”
“What’s this about?”
But as Dianal asked, he caught a glimpse of the emotions in Damian’s eyes.
Dianal nodded.
“Of course, I’ll go with you.”
Damian and Dianal began gathering the belongings of their fallen comrades and set off to visit their families.