"Sigh..."
After sending away the knight who had come to deliver a message, Ileina, sitting alone in the tent, let out a long sigh.
Dorothy said that today there were several young knights who couldn't learn the essentials of exerting force no matter how much they practiced, so she would train them late into the night and sleep directly in the Elasia knights' camp.
And Elashia was still having a quarrel with her and hadn't returned yet.
Having finished handling all of today's military affairs, Ileina felt for the first time in a long while the loneliness she had experienced years ago when she was in Elasia and the Holy Kingdom hadn't yet fallen into trouble.
Master wouldn't return tonight, and Elashia was currently outside sulking. In the large commander's tent, she was the only one remaining...
...
Elashia, who was currently observing knight training at the Elasia knights' camp, was also filled with conflicted feelings.
She knew that everything Ileina had said earlier was for her own good, and was all based on rational considerations...
But whenever she thought that the idealistic Ileina might be hindered because of her... she just couldn't accept it in her heart.
"Hey, Empress Elashia."
Caroline, who had just finished a meeting with her subordinate second-level officers, walked straight toward Elashia with a smile.
"Miss Caroline?"
Elashia, who only noticed Caroline's sudden appearance beside her after coming back to her senses, turned her head away somewhat embarrassedly.
"I knew you'd be here."
She sat down beside Elashia without any sense of distance.
Looking at Elashia who was somewhat embarrassed to look at her, Caroline smiled and asked:
"What's wrong? Is Empress Elashia still angry at Lady Ileina?"
"I'm not angry at her..."
Hearing Caroline's words, Elashia became even more embarrassed...
"Hahaha... I understand."
Caroline raised her wine-red eyes to look at the stars in the sky.
"Ah... looking at these stars in the sky... I suddenly remembered something quite embarrassing..."
"Hm?"
Elashia looked at Caroline strangely.
"What is it?"
Caroline smiled and made eye contact with Elashia.
"That... should have been a night nearly ten years ago..."
"At that time we were engaged in a great battle with the Blood Clan on a plain..."
"That guy Adeline was the commander responsible for this battle at the time, while I was the captain of a Holy Tribunal Army unit..."
"The situation then... should have been over ten thousand of us against twenty thousand Blood Clan troops..."
"Because we were really at a significant disadvantage compared to the Blood Clan in terms of forces, we were at a disadvantage on the battlefield and the battle line might collapse soon, so as a high-level combat unit commander, I came up with an extremely risky strategy..."
"The Blood Clan places great emphasis on military formation order. To ensure their formations don't fall into chaos, they're willing to sacrifice almost anything..."
"So, with the situation already somewhat chaotic at the time, I immediately decided—to order all the Holy Tribunal officials under my command to abandon their armor and form a spear formation to charge into enemy lines in a suicidal manner..."
At this point, Caroline's face gradually showed a hint of pride.
"Then... we charged into the Blood Clan military formation like headless flies."
"Both the Blood Clan commander and Adeline, who was observing the battle situation from the command tower, were stunned—throughout history there had only been breakthrough tactics, but charging into heavy encirclement was a first."
"At that time, my short-range communicator kept ringing... I was very clear that it must be from Adeline, she definitely wanted to order me to break out quickly."
"But at that time there was a strong... how should I put it, probably a commander's intuition, that told me—only by doing this could we win."
"So, not only did I not command the Holy Tribunal officials to retreat, but I also led them in crazy charges left and right within the Blood Clan's military formation..."
"Then... time passed like this for several hours."
"The Blood Clan's military formation was shattered by our charges, so overall we finally gained the advantage in the battle situation..."
"However, because the battle situation was really too chaotic at the time, plus it was nighttime, leading soldiers in left and right charges through the Blood Clan army, I really couldn't distinguish my location..."
"Under this almost reckless fighting method, my Holy Tribunal official unit of over five hundred suffered more than half casualties. I was very clear—if we continued charging around like this, we'd all die here."
"Finally, having lost contact with the main force, I had no choice but to lead my remaining... probably less than a hundred men, and charge into a small mountain."
"Then... we continued fighting desperately under Blood Clan encirclement, holding out until Adeline achieved victory on the front lines..."
Speaking to this point, Caroline placed her hand on her stomach with some lingering fear.
"I remember very clearly at that time... due to prolonged fighting, I had almost lost my reason and sense of pain..."
"It wasn't until reuniting with the main force led by Adeline, meeting with Adeline who pounced on me like she'd lost her mind the moment she saw me... that I realized—not only were there just a few brothers left beside me, but my body had almost no intact places left..."
"Especially the abdomen... at that time you could even see my intestines from above..."
"I can still remember that scene now... Adeline screamed for a medic while rushing toward me..."
"But..."
Caroline showed a somewhat awkward smile.
"At that time, knowing only that we were about to win, I directly pushed Adeline away and demanded she quickly organize the army to pursue the scattered Blood Clan forces to expand our victory."
Caroline suddenly laughed with some nostalgia.
"Then... Adeline cried directly."
"Seeing her, who was usually so ruthless, suddenly cry, I was instantly at a loss... then could only obediently accept her companionship and treatment..."
"Then this battle ended with our pyrrhic victory..."
At this point, Caroline's expression gradually became serious.
"After that battle ended, Adeline angrily asked me on the sickbed—why I had pushed her away at that time."
"And I... actually didn't know either."
"Later, under that guy Adeline's coercion, I thought for a long time... before finally understanding this matter."
Caroline said seriously to Elashia:
"Since getting to know Adeline, I've always served as her companion and achieved countless military exploits for her..."
"When we were Holy Tribunal officials together, she and I cooperated to kill a Blood Clan general on the battlefield, making the front page of the Holy Capital newspaper at that time."
"When we were squad leaders together, she and I worked together, one real and one feint, during a great battle we crossed a thousand miles to attack the Blood Clan's logistics team, causing nearly ten thousand Blood Clan troops to run out of supplies..."
"And when she was finally promoted all the way to marshal, I was also her most capable general..."
"Even that stubborn tsundere had to admit at the military annual meeting—I was one of the people she couldn't live without in her life."
"So... precisely because I knew I was very important to her, I couldn't accept being a burden to her, not even a little bit."