When he regained consciousness, the back of his head was throbbing.
“Ouch…….”
Hughie groaned and shook his head from side to side.
It seemed he fainted after being hit on the back of the head by the hilt of the sword swung by Oros. Hughie came to his senses and looked around.
Bound tightly with rope, Hughie was tied to a large tree in the forest. Looking to the side, Shion and Kay were also tied to the same tree in the same way.
“Are you awake, Hughie.”
Shion asked in a nonchalant voice. Hughie smiled brightly.
“Oh my, Shion~ Good morning!”
His smile was excessively bright. Shion’s eyebrow twitched.
“……You seem rather comfortable?”
“Yeah, I’m used to being bound. Shall I say it’s the comfort of lying in bed…….”
“Since I have no reason to be used to it, I feel quite uncomfortable.”
Retorting sharply, Shion glanced sideways. Hughie also followed her gaze.
Kay had her head bowed deeply. Her facial expression was hidden by her hair, but it was evident she was biting her lip firmly.
Hughie asked cautiously.
“Wow, she sleeps well even in this situation?”
“I’m not sleeping?! No, the one sleeping until just a moment ago was you!”
Kay raised her head sharply and screamed. Hughie was startled.
“Oh my goodness, you scared me. Why are you shouting and making a fuss! You surprised me!”
Kay, grinding her teeth and huffing, soon bowed her head deeply again.
“……I can’t believe it.”
There were even tears welling up in Kay’s eyes.
“To think Oros and Bianca betrayed us, why would they do this…….”
“Hmm.”
Subduing and tying up the Commander-in-Chief and the Knight Commander.
As Oros revealed with his own mouth, this was a clear act of rebellion.
Hughie shrugged his shoulders and turned his gaze forward.
“Well, we’ll find out about that if we listen from now on.”
Shion and Kay also turned their heads to where Hughie was looking.
Oros and Bianca were walking towards them. Behind them, soldiers also followed in a swarm.
“Everyone seems to have regained consciousness.”
Oros asked with a gentle smile. Hughie grinned back.
“Thanks to you, I slept~ soundly. Thanks. But I’ve needed to pee really badly since last night, could you untie me for a moment?”
“You must have many questions, but what use is talking to each other? I’ll just tell you what we will do with you from now on.”
“Could you not ignore me? I think I’m going to pee right now? The Prince might wet himself right here? Hmm?”
Hughie twisted his body as if it was really urgent, but Oros lightly ignored him.
“We will take you into the fortress and surrender to the Brynhilt Army.”
Shion and Kay looked at Oros, sweating cold bullets.
“If we offer the Commander-in-Chief and the Knight Commander, they should treat us reasonably well, right? The Eindel Army, having lost its leaders, will disintegrate…… and the war will truly end.”
“Why are you doing this, Oros! You aren’t that kind of person!”
Kay, shouting, turned her gaze to Bianca standing behind Oros.
“Bianca, you too! Stop your husband!”
“…….”
But Bianca kept her mouth shut tight and only looked at the ground. Kay cried out desperately.
“Bianca!”
“Sorry, Kay. I’m sorry. But…… there is no other choice.”
Finally opening her mouth, Bianca muttered in a suppressed voice.
“Anyway, this war…… is hopeless…….”
It was then. Hughie twisted his body like a twisted bread stick and screamed.
“Kyaaaaa! It’s the limit! I think I’m going to burst! The Prince’s embarrassing appearance will be shown to everyone!”
Everyone looked at Hughie in shock. Shion and Kay, freaking out, desperately leaned their bodies sideways to get away from the Prince.
But it was a fake. Hughie, having effectively focused everyone's attention, calmly curled up one corner of his mouth.
“I think I know. Sir Oros.”
Oros tilted his head.
“Know what, Prince Hughie? If you really need to urinate, I can untie you for a moment. I have no hobby of seeing such a wretched sight.”
“No, it’s fine. My bladder has already passed the limit of…… something. That’s not what’s important.”
Hughie giggled and scanned Oros and Bianca alternately.
“When the Brynhilt Army diverted the waterway, that Gilliam sent you out to get water…… that’s a lie, right?”
Shion and Kay snapped their eyes open.
“Unable to endure the thirst, you deserted, right? You guys?”
“Ugh…….”
Bianca trembled her shoulders and stepped back a few steps.
Without answering, Oros just listened to Hughie’s words with narrowly smiling eyes. Hughie curled up his lips wickedly.
“Right? You deserter bastards. It’s not that you didn't return to the fortress. You couldn't return.”
“…….”
“That’s why you were wary when you first met us too. Am I right? Hmm?”
Oros, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly brought up a different story.
“Bianca is pregnant.”
Startled Bianca looked at her husband. Kay, equally surprised, opened her mouth wide.
“It’s been five months now.”
Oros still had a smiling face, but his voice was sharply edged.
“My wife, with a child in her belly, is covered in enemy blood every day, getting injured in battle…… but still, I endured. We are knights, and it is wartime.”
Dropping his head, Oros let out a hollow chuckle kuku.
“But then even drinking water ran out.”
“…….”
Listening quietly, Shion shut her mouth tight.
“Bianca, collapsed from dehydration, was crying silently, but she couldn't even shed tears because she couldn't drink water. What…… what do you think I thought looking at that face?”
Oros slowly raised his head, and his eyes were blazing.
“Are you telling me to watch my woman and my child die of thirst? Don't make me laugh.”
“You are soldiers.”
Hughie retorted sarcastically.
“Desertion is not allowed under any pretext. You know well, Sir Knight?”
“Don’t blabber as you please without knowing what our situation was!”
Oros shouted thunderously.
“Sir William died! The father of the Knight Order! The heart of the Eindel Kingdom Army! That Sir William Light who officiated our wedding…… his head was cut off by the enemy Dragon Knight! Right in front of me!”
His always smiling face was terrifyingly distorted. But Hughie faced him calmly.
“Still, we fought. Even though the number of dead became greater than the living, we fought. We resolved to die honorably and fought! When water ran out, we drank blood from enemy corpses and fought!”
Oros showed his two hands with no intact fingernails. His crimson hands trembled violently.
“But the incompetent King didn't send a single reinforcement, did he? He was sad to hear our news? Is being sad the end? Let us die trapped in there……!”
“No, am I the King? It’s been ten days since I took military command, you know? This is absurd.”
“Don’t make excuses, Commander-in-Chief!”
Oros pointed at the grumbling Hughie.
“While innocent soldiers were dying all over the place, the capital just watched with hands off!”
“No, I mean, it’s not my fault. It’s unfair, really. Ugh.”
Then Bianca grabbed Oros from behind.
“Oros. Calm down.”
“……!”
Pausing, Oros let out a long sigh and held Bianca’s hand.
“……I’m okay now. Sorry.”
Calmed down, Oros opened his mouth with a smiling face again. Although no one thought it was a smiling expression anymore.
“I said let’s surrender, but Sir Gilliam didn't listen. He said he would fight until death.”
Oros let out a hollow laugh.
“Dying of dehydration, or being trampled to death by the enemy…… Haha. Damn it. What meaning is there in that? What meaning is there in an honorable death?”
Sweeping his hair back as if tearing it out, Oros faced Hughie.
“Tell me. Prince Hughie. What meaning is there in this war exactly?”
“…….”
“Is that meaning great enough for my wife to fight with a pregnant body and die from lack of water?”
Hughie did not answer.
“Right. We are deserters. We barely escaped this war like that, and you want us to invade there again? Don't talk nonsense.”
Oros shook his head from side to side.
“This war has no chance of winning anyway…… Everyone knows, right? How can we beat those monsters?”
Shion spoke calmly.
“We have already defeated Brynhilt’s 3rd Legion. We can do it sufficiently.”
“Ha, very well done! So you can defeat the remaining legions too? With a few knights and a speck of remaining troops? Are you really confident, Sir Shion?”
“…….”
No, honestly she wasn't. Shion shut her mouth.
Just as a soldier, she was doing what she could.
Oros interrogated Hughie as if he couldn't understand at all.
“Why continue a war with no chance of winning? Because of that useless stubbornness…… how many more soldiers have to die, how many more citizens have to suffer before you intend to end the war?”
Hughie, listening quietly, opened his mouth slowly.
“Finding meaning in war is nonsense.”
Oros raised his eyebrows. Hughie snorted and grumbled.
“My god, a soldier looking for a reason to fight, what a boring joke. How lax has the Kingdom Army become while I was gone?”
“Wh, What did you say?”
“I don't know about other people's reasons, but if it’s the reason I want to continue this war, I can tell you, Sir Oros.”
Grin.
Revealing his canine teeth, curling up the corners of his mouth to the fullest, Hughie declared wickedly.
“I can't stand anyone touching my things.”
“……?!”
“This kingdom is mine. Not a drop of water, not a grain of sand. Everything, is mine.”
Spouting that kind of nonsense even in this situation.
Shion shook her head slightly. Kay sighed.
“Do you think I’ll hand it over meekly just because a neighbor bastard who suddenly invaded swings a sword demanding it? Not a chance in a million years! Tell them to cut the crap!”
Dumbfounded by the absurdity, Oros asked back blankly.
“So you’ll turn it into ruins?”
“Yeah.”
Hughie answered immediately and refreshingly.
“I don't care if everything gets destroyed.”
“What…….”
“No matter how many people die, how much the city is ruined, whether the river dries up or the mountain burns! I don't care.”
Needlessly honest Hughie giggled and affirmed.
“As long as it is wholly mine, that’s enough.”
Fed up, Oros muttered softly.
“This crazy bastard…….”
“Hmph hmph. I hear that often, those words.”
Raising his nose high, Hughie narrowed his red eyes.
“For me, there is no surrender. I’d rather die.”
“…….”
“If you want to betray your country, sacrifice your colleagues to secure your own safety, go ahead as much as you want, deserter knight.”
A smirk of ridicule flowed from Hughie’s lips.
“That must be the limit of trash like you.”
“Hughie!”
Shion called Hughie urgently. What good would provoking him further do in this situation?
But Oros was calm.
“Right. I am trash. But I would rather live as trash than die as a knight.”
Oros held Bianca’s hand standing behind him tightly.
“Because to me…… Bianca and the child in her belly are more important than the country.”
Hughie snorted Hmph!.
“Do as you please, you trash bastard.”
“Hughie!”
“No, what can I do then? In this situation, if I beg with tears to release me, do you think he will release me?”
Oros smiled bitterly. Kay, knowing well he wasn't that kind of person, ground her teeth.
From the moment he subdued them, who were once comrades, like this, Oros’s will was firm.
“Forget it, Oros! Let me ask one favor.”
Hughie shouted boldly. Oros tilted his head.
“What is it?”
Hughie twisted his body again.
“L-Let me pee…… I think I’m going to die…….”
“…….”
When Oros signaled to the side with his eyes, two soldiers came and took Hughie to the forest.
Shion, worrying about not knowing how to overcome this situation, suddenly noticed one person missing.
“Sir Oros, what did you do with the prisoner we brought?”
“Ah, that Brynhilt bastard?”
Oros smiled gently.
“We killed him.”
“……?!”
“What?”
Shion’s complexion turned pale, and Kay swallowed a gasp.
“We aren't surrendering because we like the Brynhilt bastards either. We have no hope so we are doing this unavoidably. But if we surrender now, we won't be able to kill those bastards again, right?”
Oros burst into laughter looking at the murderous soldiers standing next to him.
“So inadvertently, these friends killed him to vent their anger.”
“…….”
Shion and Kay exchanged flustered glances.
They couldn't reveal that prisoner's identity now…….
Then Hughie and the soldiers returned from the forest.
“Hyaaaaa~!”
Hughie’s expression was the brightest and cleanest since he got out of prison. It was a face almost halfway into heaven.
“Holding it for a long time like this occasionally is okay too…… Haaa.”
“…….”
“Ah, I think I’m getting addicted…….”
Soldiers pulled up Shion and Kay, who were looking at such Hughie with disgust. Shion, dragged next to Hughie, whispered softly.
“What do we do, Hughie?”
“Huh?”
“I mean the current situation! Like this, we will be captured as prisoners by the enemy helplessly!”
Hughie laughed cackle and shrugged his shoulders.
“Eyy whatever, it’s a dream anyway.”
“……?”
What bullshit is this?
At the unexpected words, Kay blinked her eyes stupidly. Shion asked back reluctantly.
“Yes?”
“This is a dream. I’ve been asleep since lying down after eating yesterday.”
“……Yes?”
“Ah right, shouldn't pee in a dream. When I wake up, I won't have really peed, right? Oh my my, that would be big trouble. What an embarrassment.”
“…….”
“…….”
Shion and Kay watched Hughie’s foolish denial of reality with their mouths wide open.
Facing those faces, Hughie frowned.
“No, can’t you guys be a little kinder to me at least in the dream? Hmm? Act cute a bit. Flatter me too. The Prince is thirsty for affection.”
Still, as the two remained stiff, the smile slowly disappeared from Hughie’s brightly smiling lips.
Only then did Hughie carefully look left and right, then whispered with a slightly worried expression.
“……Perhaps. Is this not a dream?”
***
In front of Ice Mail Fortress.
A Brynhilt soldier guarding the fortress gate discovered a group of soldiers coming to the gate and shouted.
“Who goes there!”
The knight at the lead, Oros, shouted.
“I am Knight Oros of the Eindel Kingdom! Inform the Legion Commander.”
Oros shook the rope held in his hand.
Hughie, Shion, and Kay were tied in a row on the rope.
“Bringing the Commander-in-Chief and Knight Commander of the Eindel Kingdom Army, I surrender!”
Unprecedentedly flustered Shion turned her pale face to the side. Kay, sweating like rain, also turned her face to the side.
Receiving gazes between the two, Hughie, chuckling hollowly, said one word quietly.
“Ah fuck.”
Rumble―
Making a heavy sound, the fortress gate opened like the mouth of a devil.