Chapter 5: The Eye of the Shooting Star
The battlefield returned to quietness. There was not a single soldier who broke away.
"You…you…"
Rihyalda somehow opened her mouth despite her shaking lips.
"Monsters…!"
While the dragon knights were taking on waves of attacks, Rihyalda didn’t have a scratch as she quietly looked at the bodies floating in the sea; she could not muster any words aside from these. Around the bodies were the smoke of the burnt black dragons rising up as the bodies drifted between the waves.
With the dragon knights now annihilated, there is no mistaking that the plan to capture Mariisua is now a complete failure. So that the large number of giant birds used for transportation didn’t interfere with the fight, after they finished their transportation, they were evacuated.
The invasion of the mixed southern military forces became completely helpless. There was no way to contact their original nation of this fact, and even the shogun’s wishes of a retreat did not come true. The plan was to capture them after victory, but this backfired.
Before her eyes was an unbelievable defeat, and at the knowledge of such an impossible enemy, the soldiers and officers morale is at a new low.
"Sh…shogun…uh…what exactly is the enemy we are fighting against!?"
"They treated the dragon knight unit like babies and sent them to watery graves…-just what are these guys!?"
The staff officers were in a state of confusion, and asking her questions as if to find some strand of sense in all this. They as well as Rihyalda knew she didn’t hold an answer like that. But, their hearts were too shocked by the fact of the dragon knight unit being annihilated.
"…I will not forgive this."
"What?"
Rihyalda scowled at the castle gate before her eyes. Half of the castle was supposed to have fallen into her hands by now. They should have been close to taking Queen Hamieea’s head. The hopes of retreat was cast far from them.
Against such a mysterious enemy, their chances of victory became naught. For a warrior, falling in battle is the last pride. For instance, if in the end they could still destroy Mariisua, then their deaths would hold meaning. Rihyalda took out the sword on her waist. This sword had been passed down for generations in her family; it is sealed with magical power: it is a magic sword.
"Ancestors…please guide us."
She closed her eyes like a saint. And, she noisily lifted her sword and declared.
"All members, follow me! Our aim is the head of Hamieea!"
Even in this despair, Rihyalda held onto an unfading charisma. Her subordinates cheered up at her voice. The squad’s morale at the verge of break down, her voice alone brought it back up.
"F-follow the shogun!"
"There is no retreat for us Inheritance Empire forces!"
Rihyalda commanded the mass of surviving soldiers and started a march for the inside of the castle.
But, in such a march there cannot be seen any hope. This was the end result of the battle that they were set up to win just a few dozen minutes earlier.