Chapter 50

Chapter 50
## Chapter 50

“C-Count Dominic!”

“His Excellency has been felled!”

Wails of pure terror broke out among the backup battalions as they watched Dominic’s head leave his shoulders.

A military force that loses its guiding light instantly dissolves into a mindless mob. In his final moments, Dominic was forced to swallow the bitter medicine of the very ambush he had intended for his rivals.

“Crush them into the dirt!”

—Waaaaaaaah!

Following Lucian’s decree, the thousand elite warriors charged, trampling the reserve units in a single wave. Already thin in numbers and with their fighting spirit shattered, they were liquidated in a heartbeat.

Once the path was cleared of the reserves, Lucian tossed the gory trophy to his lieutenant, Gerard.

“Sir Gerard! Affix this wretch’s head to a pike and parade it for all to see!”

“Understood, Third Young Master!”

Gerard wasted no time, directing a nearby footman to hoist the head atop a long spear.

The Krepelt legions, who had previously been pinning down the Allied Forces, were paralyzed by dread the second they spotted Dominic’s head bobbing above the fray.

“The… The Count is dead…!”

Their resolve was already crumbling at the arrival of fresh enemy steel. Now, paired with the grisly sight of their decapitated leader, their combative will evaporated, replaced by an overwhelming flood of panic.

As the Krepelt ranks buckled in chaos, the Valdek cavalry slammed into their side like a hammer.

“Perish, you vermin!”

“F-Flee! Run if you value your lives!”

“You cowards! Stand your ground! Do not turn your backs!”

Junior officers scrambled to patch the holes in the line, but their efforts were in vain. Having breached the Grand Accord, they were well aware of the horrific price of failure. As the specter of ruin closed in, the terror of certain vengeance swallowed the rank and file.

“You blithering idiots! I commanded you to hold the line! If another man retreats, I’ll personally—!”

Splat!

“Gah!”

“If you find retreating so distasteful, I’ll facilitate your permanent stay on this field.”

Lucian tore through the field commanders who were frantically trying to plug the leaks in the formation, silvering them one by one. Each time a leader emerged to restore order, Lucian appeared to silence them, and soon, the entire nervous system of the army went dead.

Before long, the Krepelt host shattered completely. The Allied Forces and the Valdek warriors, their spirits reignited, surged forward in pursuit.

“Leave no one standing! We don’t have room for captives!”

“Heavenly wrath upon the traitors!”

“I am Hugo! Carve that name into your memories!”

As if purging weeks of bottled-up agony, the Allied Forces methodically liquidated the Krepelt remnants. When the outcome was no longer in doubt and the frenzy began to cool, Cedric hurried toward the First Prince, Claude.

“Brother, I have arrived! Are you hurt?”

“Uh… Ce-Cedric? How are you…?”

Cedric leaped from his mount before the stunned Claude, dropping to one knee with a booming voice. “I thank the heavens I wasn’t too late! I have come alongside Lord Lucian to pull you from the brink! Please, forgive your younger brother for the delay!”

“…!?”

Hearing Cedric’s proclamation, the expressions of the surrounding aristocrats shifted with suspicion. Had they truly retreated all the way to the Horsen River, there was no physical way they could have returned this fast. It was glaringly obvious they had been shadowing the Allied Forces from the shadows.

The complication was that such a maneuver was a blatant defiance of the directives issued by the Commander-in-Chief, Claude.

‘Did the Second Prince secretly instruct Lord Lucian to stay close?’

‘Wait, isn’t that essentially a mutiny against his brother’s orders?’

‘Be that as it may, he saved our necks. It was a brilliant tactical pivot in hindsight.’

‘It’s not a stain that washes out easily. The Second Prince is…’

The murmuring lords abruptly fell into a tense silence. None of them dared to voice the most volatile subject of all: the right to the imperial throne.

Tuning into the atmosphere, the Second Prince, Cedric, kept his gaze fixed on the ground while a subtle, triumphant smirk touched his lips.

‘Yes, this is undeniable insubordination. It is a strike against my brother’s prestige. But who would dare cast a stone now?’

Had Cedric been a dutiful subordinate, Claude would currently be a corpse or a caged bird. Because he had single-handedly averted a total wipeout, it was nearly impossible for anyone to publicly condemn his defiance. More importantly, hadn’t Cedric just signaled to the entire nobility that he operated independently of Claude’s reach?

‘They must see it by now—that I am no longer content in the shadows of the throne. They’ll be busy weighing which horse to back.’

When Claude’s standing was solid and the Emperor provided his shadow, displaying such ambition was a death sentence. Knowing the Emperor’s temperament, any hint of Cedric reaching for the crown would have seen him banished to the empire’s desolate fringes.

But through this catastrophe, Claude had advertised his own ineptitude to the whole realm. The nobility would have no choice but to view Cedric as the viable alternative. Even if the Emperor moved to strike Cedric down now, the backlash from the lords would be immense.

‘Technically, it was Lord Lucian who took the lead, not me… but there’s no reason to set the record straight. Such trivialities weren’t part of our arrangement.’

While Lucian would reap the glory of the blade, Cedric intended to frame himself as the visionary who had foreseen the disaster and prepared the cure. As long as he refrained from a flat-out lie and merely rode the wave of popular assumption, Lucian would have no grounds to object.

Just as Cedric was about to lean into the political theater he had orchestrated, a sharp voice cut through the air.

“I see it now! This was all the First Prince’s grand design! A truly masterful stroke!”

The Marquis bellowed this out, ensuring every ear on the field caught it. The gathered nobles blinked, blindsided by the claim.

“What is the meaning of this? His Highness the First Prince has been here the entire time.”

“Think logically. Do you honestly believe the Second Prince, who has been a pillar of loyalty, would have defied a direct command on a whim? This was clearly a clandestine operation conducted under the First Prince’s private orders.”

“…!”

“Moving the Second Prince to the rear was a feint from the start. They aligned their narratives just in case a spy was listening. Isn’t that the truth?”

With eyes shot through with red and blood still seeping from a ruptured eardrum, the Marquis offered a jagged grin. Seeing Bernhardt’s mocking expression, Cedric ground his teeth in silent fury.

‘That meddling old vulture! He’s trying to either hand all my glory to my brother or corner me into a formal confession of treason!’

While it was awkward for Claude’s faction to bring up the defiance, Cedric was equally hesitant to admit fault in the open. It was one thing for others to mention his ‘mistake’ in light of his success, but the moment he confessed to it himself, he handed his rivals the legal rope to hang him.

Marquis Bernhardt had deftly moved the target of the conversation from Claude’s failure to Cedric’s rebellion.

‘My apologies, Second Prince, but I cannot allow you to walk away with the crown today. No matter how dim-witted the First Prince is, he is a safer bet than having you on the throne.’

The piercing stares of the two men locked, invisible lightning crackling between them.

Claude, who had finally stopped seeing spots, caught the drift of the conversation and began nodding with desperate intensity.

“Y-Yes! It is exactly as the Marquis says! Cedric, you executed the plan perfectly!”

‘You miserable snake…!’ Cedric boiled with internal rage. Usually, Claude was too thick to dress himself, yet his survival instincts were razor-sharp when it came to stealing credit.

“To think you reacted so swiftly despite the ‘official’ orders! Your timing was impeccable!”

“…You are too kind.”

Swallowing his bile, Cedric answered and looked up. Claude’s eyes, though his knees were still knocking, were sharp with a new kind of suspicion. For the first time, he had truly recognized the predator in his younger brother.

‘Damn it, did I underestimate that old bird too much?’

Just as Cedric was about to lament the sudden reversal of his fortune caused by the Marquis’s gambit…

—The day is won!

Boooooo—

—Waaaaaaaah!

From the direction where they had hunted the fleeing Krepelt survivors, the blast of a victory horn and a massive roar of triumph erupted.

Flick.

Lucian snapped the blood from his blade and watched the handful of survivors vanishing into the tree line. There were fewer than a hundred left, but since they had slipped away, they would undoubtedly carry the news of this slaughter back to their central command.

“What a pity. I should have erased them all.”

“You have already performed miracles today, Third Young Master!”

Gerard, the tactician, looked at Lucian with wide eyes, shocked by his dissatisfaction.

“You took the enemy general’s head, pulled the First Prince from the jaws of death, and turned a routed army into a victorious one. On top of that, you’ve personally dispatched over seven knights. Why are you still hunting for more?”

“It isn’t about the glory; it’s about the leak. Once Krepelt receives the report, they will mobilize everything to crush us before we can pull back. I wanted to ensure the well of information was dry.”

“I see…”

Gerard began to wonder if he was being a bit too clinical, but he kept his thoughts to himself. Lucian wasn’t obsessed; he was simply calculating. He didn’t see it as greed, but as a tactical objective that remained unfulfilled.

‘Is this the gap in our perspectives? To think the Third Young Master naturally views the world from a height I, his own strategist, cannot even reach.’

Leaving the pensive Gerard behind, Lucian turned his mount. Now that the dust had settled, it was time to give his account to the Commander-in-Chief, Claude.

However, before Lucian could even swing out of his saddle to pay his respects, Claude’s voice rang out first.

“You were extraordinary, Lord Lucian! Just as I commanded, you were diligently protecting our flank against the foe!”

“…?”

What in the world is he babbling about?

Lucian blinked, scanning the faces around him. Seeing the Marquis’s smug grin and Cedric’s twisted expression, he rapidly decoded the political maneuver.

‘Ah, I see the game they’re playing.’

What Lucian and Cedric had done was a textbook case of mutiny. Regardless of the outcome, it was politically suicidal to say, “I ignored the Commander-in-Chief’s stupidity and did what I wanted.” So, they were trying to gift-wrap Lucian’s victory and hand it to the First Prince. It was a crafty bit of face-saving.

‘I’m sorry, but I have no desire to sign off on such a lopsided contract.’

Lucian let a tiny, knowing smirk flash for a fraction of a second, then immediately adopted a look of profound confusion, tilting his head.

“Your Highness, I don’t understand. Orders?”

“Did I not give you the word! To shadow us while feigning a withdrawal to the rear, keeping a sharp eye for the enemy! That is the very brilliance I am commending!”

Claude spoke with exaggerated volume, staring daggers at Lucian. It was a gaze that begged him to ‘just play along,’ but Lucian instead furrowed his brow and turned to Blasker.

“Lord Blasker, what is the meaning of this theater?”

“W-What do you mean by that?”

“I explicitly stated that I would shoulder the full weight of the consequences. And yet, for you to try and shield me with such lies!”

“No, Lord Lucian…!”

“Justice must be absolute! Merit is to be rewarded, and crimes are to be answered! I have no intention of slinking away from my actions! Please, cease this at once!”

After his brief, sharp outburst, Lucian dropped to both knees and slammed his forehead against the dirt. Then, with a voice vibrating with raw, unfiltered emotion, he cried out to Claude.

“Your Highness! I am overwhelmed by your kindness in trying to protect my name, but I cannot allow this falsehood! I kept my troops in the field in direct defiance of your royal decree, without ever being told to do so! How can you claim otherwise!”

“…!”

“Even though I was ordered to the rear, I could not suppress my anxiety and followed you, brushing aside even the Second Prince’s attempts to force me back! Everything was my own transgression, so I beg of you, deliver the punishment I deserve!”

Thump.

Concluding his speech, Lucian struck his head against the earth once more. The assembled lords fell into a heavy, suffocating silence, swapping uneasy glances. Though his words were concise, they carried enough weight for everyone to see the naked truth.

‘So… he wasn’t acting on the First Prince’s secret orders at all?’

‘He was supposed to be miles away, but he broke his oath and acted on his own?’

‘If that’s the case, then the Second Prince didn’t do a thing either.’

Since Lucian had formally confessed to the act of insubordination, the credit for the victory belonged solely to him. To put it bluntly, the two princes had been caught trying to hijack Lucian’s achievement to bolster their own failing reputations.

Cedric and Marquis Bernhardt, who had been made to look like fools by a few sentences, could only manage hollow, dry chuckles.

‘The Marquis was a snake, but Lord Lucian is a dragon.’

‘What a stubborn man. He’s determined to keep every single ounce of glory for himself!’

Even though Lucian had admitted to a crime, not a single person present dared to suggest he actually be punished. Unlike Cedric, who was tied to the throne by blood, Lucian was the envoy of the Grand Ducal House of Valdek. If they attempted to penalize him after he had literally plucked Claude from the grave, Grand Duke Sigmund would likely march on the capital.

Furthermore, the Emperor himself would be scandalized by the optics of punishing the man who saved the heir, so it was wiser to remain mute.

“Grrr…!”

Claude’s face turned a violent shade of crimson as he shook with suppressed rage. If he let this stand, he would be branded a failure of a commander, a monarch too dim to see talent, and a thief who tried to pick the pockets of his own savior.

His fury, simmering like a volcano about to blow, was on the edge of a breakdown, but the icy, judging stares of the surrounding nobility brought him back to reality.

‘N-No. If I lose control now, the throne is gone…!’

If he exploded here, what little shreds of dignity he possessed would vanish. He might even find himself deposed by Cedric, who was already showing his teeth.

Claude quickly plastered on a fake smile and reached down to personally pull Lucian to his feet.

“N-Now, let us not be so dramatic. How could I ever punish a hero? If anything, I must apologize for potentially treading on your honor with my clumsy attempt to protect you from the law.”

“No! The fault is entirely mine for breaking the chain of command!”

“What fault could you possibly have? In the eyes of the law, you only have the merit of preserving my life. So, please, stand tall and continue to aid me.”

Claude squeezed out the gentlest tone he could muster, but his voice was thin and brittle with humiliation. Now, Claude was forced to scavenge for the scrap of ‘the merciful ruler protecting his subject’ that Lucian had tossed him like a bone.

Lucian, seeing Claude’s face twisted in a look that was half-smile and half-sob, gave him a radiant, beaming grin.

“Since Your Highness is showing such profound grace, how could I not be moved to my core? I shall serve you with every ounce of my devotion!”

“Please… please do…”

With his head bowed in defeat, Claude acknowledged Lucian in a voice that had lost all its fire.

While gripping Claude’s hand, Lucian cast a sharp, sideways look at Marquis Bernhardt. The Marquis met his eyes for a split second before looking away, conceding the point. Now that his schemes were in tatters, the Marquis’s grip on the situation was dead. From this moment on, the Allied Forces would move only when Lucian pulled the strings.

“Your Highness, I realize the men are spent after the slaughter, but I wish to convene a war council immediately. Do I have your leave?”

“…So be it.”

Faced with Lucian’s request—which was clearly a command wrapped in a question—Claude could only nod his head in silent submission.