With Lucy secured, Daniel imdiately led his troops in a charge toward the mansion.
Though part of his motivation was a personal grudge against Khaledra, the larger objective was to shatter enemy morale—bringing an end to the wasteful skirmishes erupting across the city.
The Allied soldiers stationed near the mansion, seeing Daniel Steiner advancing with tanks and infantry in tow, raised their white flags without resistance.
The Imperial Army had pushed all the way to the mansion near the heart of the city. That alone signaled that the city had fallen, and further resistance was aningless.
Thanks to that, Daniel was able to neutralize the enemy and occupy the mansion with ease.
“Even if they’ve surrendered, don’t let your guard down! Sweep the mansion thoroughly—there could be hidden forces!”
“Round up all civilians in the parlor for now! If anyone resists or attacks Imperial soldiers, you’re authorized to subdue them imdiately! The enemy may have disguised themselves!”
“Move! Find the enemy’s command post! Move your damn legs, you slugs!”
As the officers barked out orders, Imperial soldiers rushed up and down the mansion’s halls.
Amid the chaos, Daniel walked calmly, eventually glancing back with a sigh.
There was Lucy, quietly exhaling, her fatigue barely hidden.
He had told her to stay behind sowhere safe and rest—but she had insisted on coming with him, and now it was showing.
“...Lieutenant. I’ll call for a dic. Why don’t you go back and rest?”
“I’m fine. I have a slight fever, but it’s nothing I can’t endure.”
“Enduring isn’t the point—”
Daniel trailed off and shook his head.
He knew better than to argue when Lucy was this determined.
“Is there soone you’re worried about in this mansion? Or is there sothing you need to resolve? Hm. Surely you don’t have business with Count Khaledra—he must’ve fled by now. Which ans... you must be thinking of one of the servants.”
Lucy flinched ever so slightly, her pupils trembling.
Daniel caught it imdiately and clasped his hands behind his back.
“Conveniently, I’ve already ordered all civilians in the mansion gathered in the parlor. They should be assembled by now. Go.”
“But as your lieutenant, I should be at your side—”
“Following your superior officer’s orders is part of your duty too, isn’t it?”
Granting her independent movent during warti was no small act of trust.
Lucy hesitated, then looked up at Daniel.
“Understood. Then please tell where you’ll be. If sothing happens, I’ll co imdiately.”
There was no reason not to tell her.
“I plan to track down their command post. We stord the place with plenty of noise—Count Khaledra no doubt ran, but he’ll have left traces.”
“...So of the signal operators and officers may still be inside, trying to report the mansion’s fall.”
“Exactly. So I intend to have a little chat with Count Khaledra.”
Understanding Daniel’s intent, Lucy gave him a slight nod.
Daniel gently placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Don’t push yourself. If it’s too much, lean on whenever you need to. That promise—I still an it.”
Lucy’s cheeks flushed with subtle color.
Just as she raised her head, about to offer thanks, Daniel gave her shoulder a reassuring pat and turned to walk away.
Lucy stood there staring at his back, her heart pounding wildly in her chest as she struggled to calm herself.
Only after Daniel turned a corner with the soldiers and disappeared did she finally snap out of it.
...Don’t be stupid.
Reprimanding herself, she took a deep breath and headed toward the parlor.
“Captain Lucy!”
“Welco.”
The soldiers posted at the parlor saluted as Lucy approached and opened the door.
Inside stood nurous mansion servants, dressed in tidy clothing.
So were unfamiliar, but several were faces she recognized.
They were the ones who had shunned her in her childhood.
At the sight of Lucy, they bowed their heads like criminals awaiting judgnt.
As she watched their fearful expressions, soone stepped forward from among them.
“Move! Please! Wait—excuse ...!”
A young woman pushed her way through the crowd. Short and freckled, she bore a striking resemblance to lli, the maid who had once been close to Lucy.
“Co on! I said move! Ugh, seriously...”
Seeing Narias struggling with her small fra to squeeze through made Lucy let out a small, involuntary laugh.
Finally pushing through the crowd, Narias spotted Lucy’s smile—and bead.
“My lady! You’re safe! Thank goodness!”
She rushed forward with quick little steps and took Lucy’s hands in hers.
“When the soldiers took you away, I was so scared! They looked like such bad people! I tried to stop them, but they shoved aside!”
Everyone else had been trembling before Lucy—but Narias was chattering away like she was simply greeting an old friend.
And Lucy didn’t hate it.
In fact... it ward her.
“I kept praying for you to co back, my lady, and maybe God really heard ! Although I’m a little worried, since there are so many Imperial soldiers here and all...”
Narias trailed off suddenly, sucking in a shallow breath.
It had only just dawned on her that Lucy, too, was an officer in the Imperial Army.
Watching Lucy carefully, Narias spoke in a small, nervous voice.
“Um... you’re not thinking anything strange, are you, my lady? I an, of course, soone like would never question your judgnt, but still...”
She was afraid Lucy might take revenge on the servants.
Lucy listened silently, then looked around the parlor again.
Now, many of the older servants were in tears, no doubt rembering their past wrongs.
In the past, she might’ve thought those tears were just another performance—a desperate act of submission to save themselves.
But now she knew better.
They weren’t evil. They were simply people.
People who had once stood by in silence as she suffered—and who would have been sentenced to death by Count Khaledra had they resisted.
So Lucy made a choice.
She would no longer hate people.
“There’s no need to worry.”
She looked down at Narias and spoke softly.
“I told you before—Brigadier General Steiner won’t harm civilians.”
“...And you believe that too, my lady?”
“I do.”
Recalling Daniel’s face, Lucy gave a gentle smile.
“I’m just like him.”
****
anwhile, Count Khaledra and his staff, having escaped the city using a spare Conversion Etherlium Stone, were retreating quickly in three separate military vehicles.
The confidence they once radiated as they stord into Fenbark at the head of two regints was now gone—replaced by a heavy silence that weighed down the air.
One of the staff officers, studying a map, let out a low breath and spoke.
“Major, I recomnd diverting northwest at the next junction. There's a chance the enemy may deploy aerial reconnaissance. We should stick to the forest as much as possible.”
No one remarked on the fact that the major himself was behind the wheel.
The situation was that desperate.
Whether it was the bitterness of defeat or the grim weight of what lay ahead, even breathing felt like a struggle.
The air was suffocating.
Seated tensely in the passenger seat, the communications officer suddenly grabbed the radio, reacting to interference from the other end.
Wondering what it was, he raised the receiver to his ear—and froze.
—This is Daniel Steiner. Connect to Count Khaledra.
It was Daniel Steiner, contacting them directly.
Swallowing dryly, unsure of how to respond, the communications officer turned toward the back seat.
“Your Excellency... Daniel Steiner is asking for you—”
Khaledra’s eyebrow twitched.
He stretched out his hand, as if the rest didn’t even need to be said.
The officer passed him the receiver, and Khaledra pressed the transmit button.
“Do you have sothing you want to say to ?”
There was a brief pause before the ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ reply ca.
—Surrender.
Khaledra clenched his teeth and spat out a response, dumbfounded.
“Surrender? You think capturing Fenbark ans you’ve won this war? Don’t be arrogant. So long as I draw breath, the Allied Nations will never submit to the Empire.”
Static buzzed for a mont before Daniel’s voice returned.
—Then I’ll grant your wish and turn the Allied Nations into a sea of fire. I’ll find you in that hell, screaming, and I will kill you.
The voice dropped another degree in temperature.
—Everyone who follows you will et the sa end.
Sweat broke out across the brows of Khaledra’s staff as they listened.
The transmission ended.
In silence, Khaledra slowly lowered the receiver and raised a trembling hand to his forehead.
After this battle, Daniel Steiner would rise to beco the Empire’s one and only true war commander.
Khaledra exhaled in frustration, grinding his teeth.
“Soday... I’ll see this through to the end.”
He clenched that vow—burning with hatred for the one man he now considered his only true rival: Daniel Steiner.
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