[MLV] 45. The Obnoxious Leviathan (Patreon)

A/N

It's finally here! We're slowly catching up to the regular schedule :D

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“Ladies!” The elven officer greeted, taking his flashy hat out and raising it as he stopped his horse in front of Alicia and Lucille. He had with him the most punchable face imaginable as he continued to grin at them. “I did not expect that Her Highness would be here. My name is Colonel Valentin de Montmorency. It is a great honor to see you on the battlefield, crown princess,” the elf said, proudly placing his hat back on his head. “I presume that you’ve taken the initiative to round up these demon mutineers yourself?”

Alicia tried her best to keep herself composed, because she wasn’t entirely sure what would happen to this guy and his men if her temper broke out of containment. She felt a kind of pure rage that she had never felt before.

How could they?! How could they do these to soldiers who are defending them?!

Lucille was equally speechless, her eyes still locked on the hanged soldiers.

The colonel, on the other hand, remained clueless that the two women in front of him were incensed, as he talked nonsense.

“Even so, while your initiative is commendable, I’m afraid that since we weren’t notified that you will be present here, you are not, in fact, permitted to be here,” Valentin continued with his usual arrogant tone, completely unperturbed that he was talking to royalty. The fact that he didn’t even bother to get down his horse was an insult, Alicia believed. “So, would you please come with me to talk to my superiors?”

“Sir Valentin,” Lucille finally turned to look up to him, a sweet smile on her face that seemed murderous. “Will you please explain to me what exactly that is on the city’s wall?”

“Ah, yes, that. Well, of course, Your Highness, those are deserters and mutineers.”

The officer turned to look at the column of Vaelrin soldiers behind Lucille and Alicia. Unlike the two women, the soldiers behind them didn’t seem one bit disturbed by the display. Instead, they kept their heads down, their faces only filled with tired acceptance. Most likely, they came to a quick consensus to simply shut up lest their situation get worse.

When Alicia saw this display, her temper only turned worse. Even Leonardo, who was strong enough to beat up this pompous officer, chose to look away while doing his best to control his emotions.

“Was it you and your soldiers who hanged ‘deserters’ and ‘mutineers’?” Lucille icily asked. “Who ordered this?”

“Your Highness, what you see before you is the result of the initiative of my more passionate men. It appears that some misinterpreted my orders to round up and arrest any Vaelrin soldier caught fleeing the battle. But, in a time like this, sometimes, the heat of battle affects even good men badly—”

“Bring me to your superiors now,” Lucille angrily hissed, shocking the officer that someone like Lucille actually raised her voice. “And you won’t touch anyone behind me. They are not deserters or mutineers. They fought with me.”

She curled her fist.

“They fought for Alsatia, colonel.”

“That may be so, but we have to investigate them. I have to follow orders.”

“If any of your men try to do anything to the soldiers behind me, I will personally ensure that you and your family will regret this day, Valentin de Montmorency.”

The officer frowned.

Lucille didn’t seem like she was playing games with him. But it was also plain as day that the officer didn’t come here with an ounce of respect for the crown princess, so it made sense she dropped the good princess act. Most likely, he was one of those who were strongly on the side of Lucille’s bastard brother.

“Very well then,” the man said. “Come with me.”

Lucille turned around, looking at Lorraine.

“Keep watch,” Lucille bluntly said, and Lorraine nodded after placing her hand on her chest.

Then, her face softened as she turned to Alicia.

“Can you come with me?” Lucille asked.Alicia answered with no hesitation—she needed to hear exactly what was happening.

“Yes.”

“Let’s go.”

Entering the city, the two of them walked close to each other. Lucille whispered something to Alicia.

“Look, I know how you feel about this, but please—”

“I understand,” Alicia answered, though her tone was very much still irritated. “But, Lucille, I hope you’ll understand too, that if you fail at your promises, I will have no choice.”

The princess nodded.

“Understood.”

For now, Alicia was once again going to keep herself restrained. For now, she was just Lucille’s good human friend in the background. But she was going to watch these events very closely. After hearing Lucille’s passionate speech about giving Vaelrin, like her, the rights of other citizens in Alsatia, right now, Alicia wanted to see for herself how hard Lucille’s path would be to reach that.

She looked around.

The imperial army’s soldiers marched in long columns on Florimont’s major roads. Specialized mage engineers were already clearing the rubble to let drake-drawn wagons pass or repairing the train station and railway lines of the city. It was clear that they were now rapidly taking steps necessary to bring in enough troops and supplies for a full-scale counteroffensive.

Heat of battle?

Alicia’s eyes narrowed as he watched the soldiers passing by.

These soldiers didn’t even fight that much. She was fairly sure about that. Alicia and Lucille already cleared the path for them. They were all well-fed, their morale and discipline were high, and they weren’t mindless beasts. They had professionals in their ranks. They had people who were capable of following orders correctly.

Valentin’s words were pure nonsense.

The sight she saw at the city’s wall had to be sanctioned from the top.

Or, you bastards approve and encourage it, even if you didn’t give the order.

If there was anything Alicia hated the most about evil people, it was when they weren’t at least honest about it.

Her morale dropped as she became more and more affected by the thoughts swirling in her mind. When she heard about the Demon Brigades, their conditions, and the reasons they had to fight, Alicia told herself that while it was evil, at the very least, it wasn’t something that was evil for the sake of being evil.

There was cold rationality there, a cold calculation that the Alsatian state chose to send people they viewed as expendable to black dungeon disaster zones simply because miasma corroded a soldier’s body. It was reprehensible and beyond the pale, but there was something ‘human’ about it.

But, to punish and execute those soldiers, who fought for them, for what reason was that necessary? What would Alsatia and the imperial army gain from doing that? Didn’t Antonio, Leonardo, and their comrades already accept the unfair terms that Alsatia gave to them?

Then why, for heaven’s sake, would Alsatia backstab them anyway while expecting them to keep fighting?

It made no sense. It was just cruelty for the sake of cruelty. Alicia hated that. She hated it so much, and she hated how her senses told her not to act too rashly anyway.

After all, she still didn’t fully understand the Alsatian state, and thus, the military it controlled. She felt like she was facing an enormous and uncaring leviathan that ruled over mankind’s most prosperous land. A leviathan that seemed very comfortable at treating its expendable soldiers however it wished, and a leviathan whose strengths and weaknesses she poorly understood.

Is it only those at the top responsible for this?

Alicia eyed Lucille briefly, wondering again if she could simply replace the man at the top so atrocities would be stopped.

Then she looked at the elven officer walking ahead of them, the man who openly disrespected Lucille without a care in the world, and the soldiers marching on the other side of the road, who were said to have committed the atrocity she saw even without a direct order.

Or are those in the middle and lower ranks fully involved too?

Because if that was the case, she feared that even if the monarch at the top was changed to someone like Lucille, those innocent Vaelrin soldiers would still have been hanged under her watch even if she said no to it. Considering there were a few million Vaelrin living in Alsatia’s borders that Alicia could never realistically evacuate to Vael, even if Vael was developed, that scenario was deeply concerning.

It would mean that she would have to do more than encourage a simple change of government.

She closed her eyes briefly.

Do I really have to change a whole nation too?

She bitterly looked at the soldiers marching, unable to determine which one of them would simply kill a Vaelrin soldier who was literally on their side ‘in the heat of battle.’

Every single one of them?

“She saw what your soldiers did outside?”

“Yes, sir. She appears… displeased.”

“A true shock, is it not, Valentin? That a princess popular for her empathy and kindness is disturbed by that display?”

The officer behind Pierre smiled awkwardly. That was a rhetorical question, and Valentin decided to stupidly answer it.

“A bit, general, yes.”

Pierre’s hold on his razor stiffened as he stopped shaving himself in front of a small handheld mirror. The three staff officers standing around the table beside the general, all of them previously discussing troop movements on the map, all turned to Valentin in silent shock.

Knowing he messed up, Valentin straightened himself in response and shut his mouth promptly. The general, for his part, could only groan internally. If it wasn’t for the fact that Valentin was a scion of the Montmorency family, he’d have been booted out of the army a long time ago, simply because he had a strange knack at pissing people off.

Truly, a divine providence that he’s the one amongst us who gets to meet the crown princess first in a time like this.

“Valentin, I told you, your soldiers need discipline,” Pierre said, a hint of anger in his tone as he tried to continue fixing his face. “The orders given to us were precise, were they not?”

“But general, you know how it is with my human soldiers. Humans will be humans. Sometimes they get a bit excited even with the supervision of their betters. Besides, this happens in other formations too.”

“It happens in other formations too, yes, Valentin, but yours happened to be the one that got caught. Now, I have a great headache to deal with. Do you understand what this means?”

Pierre washed his face off with water from a bucket placed near his seat, then dried it off with a small towel handed by his adjutant. Originally, before Valentin gave him this unpleasant news, he wanted to fully fix his mustache since he didn’t want to rush doing it near dinner with his staff officers. Unfortunately, royalty demanded his attention, so he had no choice but to stop here at once.

He stood up to look Valentin straight in the eye, who was starting to sweat slightly.

“You are not to present your face again to the princess,” Pierre warned. “Go to your troops and tell them that not a single demon will be harmed until I give the word out. Do not, under any circumstance, touch the ones who came with the princess. For now, we are to only arrest the stragglers.”

“Yes, sir.”

Pierre then turned back to his officers.

“It’s the same for the rest of you,” he said. “Spread the word.”

The three immediately saluted.

With his adjutant beside him, Pierre walked out of his hastily assembled command post, cursing under his breath.

Clowns. I’m surrounded by fucking clowns.

In front of the gate of an intact mansion, Lucille and Alicia stood.

“General Pierre,” Lucille crossed her arms as the old elven nobleman approached them, her gaze still icy and hostile. “I hope you didn’t make me wait on purpose.”

“Oh, I would never. Goodness, what gave you that idea?” the old general laughed heartily as he shook his hand. “Anyway, so you needed to talk to me about something?”

“General, I have seen three Vaelrin soldiers hanged for ‘desertion’ and ‘mutiny.’ I would like to have a very good explanation about why this happened and what steps you will take to prevent this incident from happening again and punish its perpetrators. I just fought with the group of Vaelrin soldiers I gathered in this city to retake it and destroy major formations of the black dungeon’s devils. This is not how they should be treated. I demand justice.”

Lucille emphasized those words deeply, as she wanted to let him know that Lucille, Alicia, Lorraine, and the soldiers who were with them did more than the entire imperial army.

“Your Highness, first of all, you are not supposed to be here,” Pierre started, his tone becoming equally standoffish. “Second of all, many of those from the Demon Brigades have indeed mutinied or deserted their posts, leading to this disaster. We therefore have to arrest and interrogate every demon soldier we see.”

“These are all unfounded claims,” Lucille insisted angrily. “I saw with my own two eyes how they all fought for the empire. Harder than anyone else. Sir, where is your honor that you’ll believe such lies about men who died for us?”

“I appreciate this unverified information, but—”

“Are you saying that I’m lying?”

“No, I would never. But, Your Highness, we, the imperial army, work only with confirmed and verified intelligence, and the fact is that the Demon Brigades conducted themselves in a treacherous manner.”

“This is a lie, and you know it. I know you know it. You and that… that damned man made this all up.”

Lucille suddenly pulled something out of her pocket.

Summoning an ember model spirit, Pierre’s eyes widened as the spirit came to life and began using a projection spell that showed a recording of last night’s battle. There, Lucille explicitly showed hundreds of Vaelrin soldiers fighting hard with her at Florimont to retake the wall.

The general’s face darkened.

“I have more, general,” Lucille said. “From how the soldiers of the empire retreated, how some noble officers abandoned their troops, and how the imperial army botched the evacuations of Florimont. The truth is in front of you, and I’m not afraid of using it to protect the soldiers who fought for my empire.”

Lucille unsummoned the artificial spirit, and Pierre took a deep breath, closing his eyes tiredly.

“Your Highness,” his tone was more subdued. “You have no authority to do any of this. You are not supposed to be here. Your conduct will reflect badly on your standing. You took command of imperial army assets without permission, unilaterally. You have usurped the authority of the military. If you think this looks good for you, you are very much mistaken.”

“You know who I am, general.”

“The military only reports to the sitting emperor, Your Highness. You will understand how important this is when it’s your turn.”

“As if you actually think I’ll get a turn!”

Lucille gritted her teeth as she frowned at the man in front of her. She didn’t like how her royal bearings were starting to give way, but she was just far too angry and offended. She’d fought side-by-side with soldiers like Antonio and Leonard. She knew their situation well, and she cared for them.

She knew how much they sacrificed each day for her and people like Pierre.

To backstab them like this, Lucille couldn’t accept it.

“Princess…” Pierre started, his tone more cautious. “I don’t think we will be able to talk this one out. I must remind you that I am simply doing my job. I am simply following orders and protocols. I understand that sometimes civilians like you will find yourself frustrated or disappointed by situations such as this, but this is simply the reality of war. If you’re so outraged by our decision-making, then you will have to bring this up to the one giving us orders, not us.”

“My brother?”

“Yes, Your Highness. I cannot change the orders given to us by the war minister. I have to execute them no matter my opinion about it. In fact, I’m not supposed to have an opinion about it.”

Lucille laughed as she looked away. She knew very well that this old nutjob gleefully looked away when his soldiers executed those soldiers. Now, he had the gall to act innocent when someone who shouldn’t see his work saw it.

“No opinions. No opinions…” Lucille laughed bitterly. “You don’t sound like someone who ‘has no opinions’ at all!”

“Your Highness, again, I understand you’re frustrated, but you’re in the wrong here. If you were not the crown princess, I would be arresting you right now. You should take your complaints to the war minister privately and leave the frontlines. In fact,” Pierre turned to look at Alicia, his face softening. “It’s not good to see two ladies in a dangerous place like this. It’s unsafe for you and her.”

How dare you look at her like that! She can tear you in pieces in seconds, old fool!

“So now, we’re in the wrong for fighting to save a city of the empire and for trying to protect our valiant defenders from horrible lies that will endanger them?”

“Again, I already explained to you, it is not legal to usurp military authority. Your motives and goal won’t change that.”

“Then please, general, please drag me to the court. Let’s see how the judges and jury react to the recordings I have in hand! In fact, I wish to know whether Great Alsatia’s justice will put me inside a dark dungeon for this, just to see if the nation I’m supposed to inherit still has a soul left. I eagerly look forward to it, general!”

“Can you not be so hasty? This can all be resolved privately.”

“See, look at you. Squirming when you hear about the possibility of the people being involved. General, I swear, if you and your men touch a hair of the valiant Vaelrin soldiers who defended the empire, all of Alsatia’s newspapers will have seen these recordings within a day.”

Pierre frowned further because of Lucille’s provocations. For some reason, instead of being afraid about breaking social conventions, she felt liberated at finally airing out her anger at him. To Lucille, Pierre represented everything wrong about Alsatia. At this point, she didn’t care anymore if she sounded like an annoying woman complaining about everything.

She wanted him to know that he just did something bad and that she was absolutely going to destroy him one day.

Your turn will come one day too, Pierre. I’m going to do everything to ensure that.

She smiled as she watched him struggling to resist the urge of slapping her in the face. After his useless remark earlier about being worried that Lucille and Alicia were in a dangerous battlefield, it was nice seeing his true colors showing. She would have really enjoyed it, in fact, if he finally snapped and slapped her on the face.

She wanted the true colors of men like Pierre to finally come out so she would have all reason to beat him into a bloody pulp. It would be oh so satisfying, but unfortunately, it didn’t happen.

“Okay, look.” Pierre took a deep breath. “I hear you. I hear you very well, Your Highness. But I cannot tolerate this discussion any further, so let us have a… temporary settlement. For now.”

“A settlement? Then you’ll have to agree to these demands.”

Lucille raised her fingers one by one.

“First, you will stop branding Vaelrin soldiers as deserters, mutineers, and other fabricated lies that demean them. Second, you will give them food, water, medicine, and other essential supplies. Third, they’re going to have some rest to recover from the hard battles we fought. Fourth, I want the military to court martial those who hanged those soldiers at the city wall and anyone else in the imperial army who did the same thing.”

“I can only grant the first three terms temporarily, and the fourth is out of the question. Ultimate authority remains in the war minister's hand. In exchange, none of the information in your hands is getting out of Rhonne.”

“...Fine, I can compromise for now to keep the peace. But my patience is limited, general, and my hands might slip.”

“Don’t. I will inform the war minister promptly. I look forward to a productive settlement between the two of you.”

The general then extended his hand to her.

But she simply kept her arms crossed as she stared at him coldly.

With a sigh, Pierre retracted his hand.

“It gets too cold out here at night,” Pierre said. “I’ll send someone to give you accommodations while waiting for the war minister.”

“No need, general. I would rather stay with the men I fought beside.”

“Then so be it.” Pierre bowed a bit to her. “Have a good day, Your Highness. And don’t get too comfortable in the company of demons. People might talk…”

She huffed dismissively.

When he finally turned around and left, Lucille felt the surge of energy she had disappearing. She never raised her voice that much her entire life. Not to mention, the fact that she didn’t immediately save the soldiers and only managed to buy time sapped more of her morale. She nearly stumbled as a result, but Alicia caught her from behind.

“I’m sorry, Alicia,” Lucille said, her voice now softer. “I’m sorry you had to see all of that, but this is just what we’re dealing with. You deserve to know the true face of Alsatia.”

“No worries.” Lucille’s eyes widened as Alicia gave her a tiny, thankful smile. “I’m glad you stood up that much for them. To be honest… you’ve already said all that I wanted to say to him. For now, I can’t ask for more from you.”

“...”

Lucille looked down, averting Alicia’s gaze.

“It’s still not enough,” Lucille said, curling her fist. “Mere words mean nothing. I need to produce concrete results.”

“Of course,” Alicia nodded. “But for now, I think we should go back. The soldiers are probably getting restless. Let’s tell them this news.”

“Right.”

Tiredly, Lucille nodded along, turning around as she followed Alicia’s lead.

This day had been way too long for her and for everyone else.