Free City had never been built for grandeur.
It had the beauty and careful planning to satisfy even the Elves, but no one would have called it spectacular.
Now it floated above the dawn-lit plain, casting a vast shadow, silent and magnificent.
Everyone among Free City's senior officials except Annan had gathered in the City Lord's Mansion's Council Hall.
"Where's Annan?"
Olmedo had changed into black Noble attire. With that solemn expression, he looked like the lord of Breeze City he had once been.
"He went to see the Blue Dragon," Ingrid said.
"Then let's begin."
Olmedo stood and picked up the compiled list of the dead.
"Hellfire Legion: five thousand troops. Three Thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight killed."
"Fourth Legion: five hundred troops. Two hundred and eighty-one killed."
"Auxiliary Legion: four thousand two hundred troops. Two thousand nine hundred and twenty-six killed."
"Elite Squad: one hundred members. No survivors."
Around the table, everyone stared in silence at the list in Olmedo's hand. It seemed to drip blood.
Everything Free City had painstakingly built up had been reduced overnight to what it had possessed at its founding.
That was war: victory bought with lives.
They could only console themselves. At least we have survivors. The fifty-odd Allied Forces units stationed across the Graypeak Mountains to the North had been wiped out. Even those lucky enough to escape had been treated as deserters by the Orr Empire—
It was an ugly thing to wish for, but after Broken Fang's betrayal and what had just happened, they hoped the Orr Empire would take a terrible fall at the Northern Great Wall.
Barely ten minutes earlier, an Orr Empire envoy had arrived in Free City with an arrogant demand. Claiming Free City had failed to hold out until the twelfth, he ordered the