Hearing that answer, John's heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally died.
Ah, wonderful. After Wendy, that loyal Imperial loyalist, now came the famed Dragon Slayer.
How marvelous. Simply marvelous!
A smile spread across John's lips, but his heart was filled with indescribable bitterness.
Looking at Siegfried's hesitant expression, he could practically predict what the man was about to say.
"Officer John, I want to..."
"No, you don't!"
Before Siegfried could utter the villainous line from the game—"Officer, I want to join the Empire"—John cut him off first.
Then, without another word, he placed a hand on the other man's shoulder and solemnly advised him:
"Promise me you won't become a soldier. The battlefield isn't where you belong. Think about your wife and child. Could you really bear to leave your adorable son... cough, cough, and your respectable father behind?"
"As for Stone Village, you needn't worry either. The reason I came to Dragon Eye Domain this time was because the Empire's higher-ups instructed me to clean up the mess here. Stone Village will only get better from now on!"
"I can guarantee you that. Besides, fighting is what Imperial soldiers are supposed to do. As a civilian, all you need to do is protect your family."
"So don't make a decision you'll regret in a rush of hot blood. A real battlefield is bloody and cruel. Other than harm, you can gain nothing meaningful from it."
"I don't want a civilian like you to die on the battlefield, so I won't agree to your enlistment request."
John looked at Siegfried with a complicated gaze. After saying that, he could not help sighing inwardly.
He truly did not want Siegfried to follow the same path as in the game's storyline.
After all, Siegfried was one of the few characters