The next day at noon, several Radols showed up with the people who delivered lunch. They had slips of paper in their hands and wanted the prisoners to write their name and select their future choice.
There were three choices.
One was to return back to their country with a letter from the Radols. They would thus swear to cause no further harm to any and all Radols.
The second was to side with the Radols. As such, they would not be able to return home until the war with the kingdom ended, however, they would be treated normally. No warm hospitality, but no cold shoulders either. After a certain amount of time had passed, they would receive the rights and duties of a normal citizen within the Radol territory.
The third stated that the first two options were limited only to those who hadnât committed any crimes against the Radols in the past. Those who had done so would be subject to Radol trials and punished accordingly.
Naturally, chaos descended onto the prisoners.
Basically, the Radols were saying that theyâd consider allowing Kai and the other prisoners to side with them.
The prisoners of war consisted of first and second division soldiers.
The second division soldiers consisted of outsiders who had lost their homes to the kingdom and thus had no particular attachment. At most their families might be held hostage.
On the other hand, Kai as well as the other first division soldiers, were true soldiers of the kingdom. Staying here meant throwing their motherland aside, and the ones theyâd be siding with were the Radols who had killed many of their own people. It wasnât that difficult of a choice.
âWhat are you going to do Kai?â asked Martha. Kai didnât know when Martha had snuck up on him.
Ever since Martha had become a prisoner of war, his previous arrogance had disappeared as if it were never there and he often came to talk to Kai.
âNo other choice but to return.â
âYouâll be executed!â
âI bet.â
Kai was an officer with commoner origins. Heâd be a perfect scapegoat for the lost war. Once he returned home, heâd be court-martialed and executed.
âThen why?â Martha asked.
âI have to.â
His grandfather and grandmother were still alive. Remaining here would mean treason, and that stupid law would have his entire family executed. He couldnât let that happen.
Besides, another officer would have to take the blame. Now that Kai had took on Marthaâs responsibilities, he couldnât just push them off to someone else.
âGeez, youâre soââ Martha began but was cut off by some shouting.
âRemaining here would mean treason! I have no other options! Thereâs nothing, alright!â yelled Riemann Chardonnay, one of the few remaining senior [1] officers.
Some people agreed with him, but most soldiers hung their heads down awkwardly.
âTheyâre good.â
Kai finally figured out what the Radols were up to.
Basically, they wanted information on the kingdom. Thatâs why the Radols brought these soldiers into their own camps. Thatâs why they kept serving that ridiculously good food every day.
Under the Radols, even prisoners would be able to eat well.
Many soldiers here were still attached to their motherland, but they knew how terrifying it could be.
Any soldiers of commoner origin that had waltzed back in after defeat wouldnât receive any compensation. At worst, theyâd get slapped with treason and be imprisoned. Their life would be full of jeers and rocks being thrown at them. They had seen it happen to others after all.
Of course, staying here would be betraying the kingdom, so it wasnât an option that anyone with family back home could take.
Recently, however, several villages had been razed to the ground to prevent the spread of smallpox and many didnât even have homes to return to. No matter what reason the kingdom might have had, it was their enemy. The kingdom had killed their family and friends. Their choice was obvious.
And if any of them had information on the kingdomâs plansâ
âSo they took us in to make use of the kingdomâs internal turmoil? That Wise Mountain King of theirs is a crafty one,â Roze said in admiration.
âWhat about your former subordinate Tosh?â
âHis entire village was razed because of smallpox.â
âI seeâŠâŠâ
From what Kai had heard, Roze didnât see Toshâs betrayal coming at all and welcomed the Radol forces into Fort Arkroyâs first division.
He wouldnât have been surprised to see her furious when she found out, but she didnât seem to hold any grudges against Tosh.
Her hometown was one of the few that had been destroyed by the kingdom, so she probably would have done it herself if Tosh hadnât.
âWhy do you think theyâre taking us in Kai?â asked Roze.
âFor an all-out war, of course.â
The fact that the Radols are already trying to get every last detail about the kingdom proves that theyâre already considering a war against them.
And the kingdom had only one way to fight back against those abnormal weapons: The Seven Petals Knight Battalion led by Hero Shichika. Currently, they were a group of outsiders under the protection of the hero. And there was a rumor that the hero had a trump card.
Kai didnât doubt for a second that it would turn into an all-out war.
âEveryone, this is an evil and foolish plan that savages thought up. We need to return back to our kingdom and reinvade these savages!!â shouted Riemann Chardonnay in a trance. He raised a fist into the air, but this time, nobody agreed.
Of course they didnât: anyone who had experienced that nightmare would never dare to attack this land again.
âSo thatâs how I looked like just a while earlierâŠâŠâ Martha pitifully trailed off. He shook his head and headed off towards the cafeteria. Really though, Marthaâs changed. It was like an entire part of his personality had disappeared.
âBold of you to say that when all you did was hide.â a woman remarked with disdain. A female soldier with short black hair, who had been entranced by Riemann until recently, was standing right next to Kai.
According to Roze, Senior Officer Riemann-dono had been enjoying the pleasures of the night with that girl when the Radols had attacked. He had hid in his room under the bed and used her as a decoy, prioritizing his own safety above anything else, and mixed in with the soldiers once the commotion died down where he was taken in as a prisoner.
Having hid in his room the entire time, Riemann didnât witness that hellish landscape. He didnât realize how terrifying the Radols really were.
âStill, heâs really changed.â
When Riemann had first entered the army, he spoke politely to Kai and the other superior officers of commoner origin. He often asked them for advice and his character was so admirable that one wouldnât think he was a high-rank noble. But all that had changed in just a few years. The kingdomâs army was truly rotten.
âListen up! Our kingdomâs pride is on the line. Itâs a holy war!â Riemann gloated as he raised his arms. âThrow away your cowardice and egotism! Stake your life for his Majesty and the Hero Shichika-sama!â
There wasnât anybody as unfit to say those words as Riemann. In fact, Kai could barely hold in his laughter.
And it wasnât just Kai, but everyone in the room, so they all just ignored Riemann and headed off for the cafeteria.
âLetâs go. We havenât eaten yet,â said Roze.
âRight,â Kai said, and they followed the crowd into the cafeteria.
That nightâ
ââŠâŠ. please.â
His head still fuzzy, Kai looked up to see one of his subordinates shaking his body.
âOh, itâs you, Nils. Sorry, Iâm still sleepy. Come again tomorrow.â
âGeez! Officer Kai!â
The owner of the voice grabbed his collar and shook him up in order to wake him. He opened his eyes to see the female soldier with short black hair from before.
Kai had been picked up by Wimp and rose all the way to an officer. Nils was one of his subordinates, and Kai sometimes gave advice to her and Roze.
âWhatâs up? Is this about Riemann again? Youâre not a kid anymore. Have the people related to the problem deal with it.â
âThatâs not it! Well, itâs not totally unrelated, butâŠâŠâ
She was beating around the bush, but one look at her determined face was enough to tell him that this was a serious matter.
âWhat happened?â Kai asked.
The female soldier, Nils, gripped her fists.
âAfter Riemannâs speech yesterday, I gave a testimony that he had been among the chaos!!â
âAh, yes. Thatâs where he used you as a decoy before shamelessly surrendering, right? Didnât you say that earlier?â
âYes, thatâs what I had thought until just a moment ago. I mean, he immediately hid under the bed and ran away the moment he found a chance to. Thatâs what I said, but now that I think about it, thereâs something strange.â
âStrange? Take a deep breath and collect your thoughts.â
Nils took several deep breaths before starting again. âLike Riemann had said, we didnât run into any enemies on our way to the refuge he had talked about!â
âBut in the end, there was an ambush there, right?â
âYes, but thatâs not the problemâŠâŠâ
So thatâs what it was. Kai began to piece together what she was trying to say.
âItâs strange that you didnât run into any enemies on your way there, correct?â Kai said.
âYes, I thought we wouldnât be able to run away when those nightmarish explosions drew closer. But Iâm safe, and I made it to the refuge.â
âAnd it wouldnât have been possible without a decoy?â
Nils gulped and nodded.
âBut thatâs strange. If Riemann was the decoy, thereâs no way he could have lived.â
If he unconditionally surrendered, he wouldnât have served as a decoy. According to Nilsâs assumptions, Riemann must have drawn the attention of the Radol soldiers, who wouldnât let someone like him escape. So he was definitely dead.
ââŠâŠâ
Nils bit her lip and grasped at her coat while trembling.
Kai had a bad feeling about this. Things werenât adding up. It was a unique kind of discomfort.
âNils, answer me!â
âToday, one of the soldiers in the third squad told me that they saw Riemann on the floor with blood pouring out of his chestâŠâŠâ
âBut heâs completely healthy? Were they sure it was Riemann?â
âYes, but heâs changed as of late. Sometimes he was so arrogant and cold it was like he was another person, but other times he clung to me and trembled like a childâŠâ
He had been fastidious before suddenly becoming engulfed in lust. And the day after, she noticed that he had become violent. His personality was too different. This was one of the rumors that the other senior officers had been whispering about.
If, like that soldier had said, Riemann was already deadâŠâŠhow idiotic. Then who was the person he saw today? It was impossible.
Kai shook his head several times before grabbing her shoulders. âTomorrow Iâll start looking into Senior Officer Riemann-dono, so go back to your room and get some rest for now.â
Somewhere along the line, Nils had begun to cry. After managing to soothe her down, Kai gave Roze a brief rundown and left Nils in her care.
The personalities of Riemann and the other senior officers had changed too much. And while he had testimonies that Riemann was dead, he was alive the next day. Kai couldnât ignore the intense unease that nagged at him.
ââââââ
Several more days passed, and the Radols came into the prison camp, ordering for about ten people to come for investigation. Among the ones who accepted were Riemann, Nils, Kai, Roze, and Martha.
Since the Radols were on edge, Kai had a good idea about what he would be askedâ probably something about criminal acts towards Radols.
âOfficer KaiâŠâŠâ whispered Nils, uneasily glancing at Kai.
âItâll be alright. Theyâre just suspicious. Nothing will happen immediately,â he assured her as an intense unease ravaged his thoughts.