After a brief battle that made plenty of noise but little impact, the Imperial fleet withdrew to the DL35 system in stages on the evening of August 15. And so their probing attack on the marauders came to an end.
Of course, perhaps because a certain young Archon had charged recklessly at the head of the advance, the Dawn Angel and the Dreadnoughts in its formation had all sustained considerable damage, but not a single ship in their fleet had been sunk. Fewer than two hundred soldiers had died, and the entire force had withdrawn from the battlefield without any serious mishaps.
For a fleet the size of the Empire's, those losses were negligible. But after marching all that way and fighting for a full day without making any progress, the outcome was undeniably embarrassing for the Imperial military, which prided itself on being invincible.
Her Highness Sulyuka was young, after all. She must have found it humiliating to return empty-handed, right? She might even fly into a rage. Remembering some of the rumors he'd heard about the youngest Archon, Sobek grew rather apprehensive. He worried that when he attended the military conference shortly, he'd find himself facing a furious dragoness.
The Imperial dragonesses of the Dawn were far more dangerous than their male counterparts—a fact that had long been common knowledge among the Empire's nobility. Of course, that was assuming they were true dragons.
However, Brunhild seemed to be in a rather good mood at the conference. She even laughed aloud. "Oh, what a trick they played on us! They were ready for us all along. If we'd really charged in recklessly, I'd probably have suffered my first defeat since entering service."
"So even this doesn't count as a defeat?" the chief of staff asked with a sunny smile.