The night was still on, and the moon shone at the sleeping soldiers as they rested right in front of their enemy, preparing to face and kill each other the next day.
But the terrain between them two people met in the moon's bright light. Yuuka and Major Riaz of the Lynx forces talked about the war.
"You seem to have sent your sacrifice early."
"Anything that betrays our rules should be punished."
The two discussed the dead soldiers who tried to defect to the Lynx army and met their end. It was a mystery to foreign soldiers why anyone would kill defecting soldiers to their side. They could only assume it was the madness of the Etherian people.
"Do you remember the last time it happened in the books?"
"Yes, it was nearly 30 years ago, even before the civil war. On that day, many soldiers and the captain were sentenced to death. From what I remember, his name was Helel Rousi."
The two discussed the actual reason the soldiers were killed.
'As the pact of punishment for breaking the rules of the war.'
The soldiers kept attacking the enemy even after the end of the battle for the day was declared; this was done by many foreign soldiers, some of them even the Asphodel army themselves. So, following the rules, the Asphodel army was to be punished as per the rules.
The idea that 'no one can do anything to me, so I can do whatever I want.' wasn't present here; the rules were respected and applied to anyone and everyone.
Yuuka used the defecting soldiers as a group that was sent to take the punishment for the Asphodel and Brittain army's actions. Yuuka used his plan to kill two birds with one stone.
1. Getting rid of any possible future defection or betrayal, as people now thought that defection meant death in any scenario.
2. Paid respect to his culture and took the punishment by offering sacrifices for his actions without losing any actual soldier for himself.
"It seems we have done our talk. I will see you on the battlefield tomorrow morning, Commander Yuuka. Let's see your potential in this losing game."
"I assure you that you will be the one to bite the dust. Time is ticking off your life's clocks, but they won't last long. The deeper we move into the territory, the faster."
The captains glared at each other and walked back to their camps. Talks like these were widespread among the captain at night.
Yuuka had displayed an assertive demeanour before the enemy, but inside, he knew. He couldn't win the battle with the rules; there was no way. He needed to betray his pride and culture to win this battle.
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The Brittanian soldiers were now in control under the commander, Yuuka, who was now in a pinch. He needed to do something to win this battle.
To start with his plan, he called Captain Levi. He was the only person who could agree to the job he was about to do.
"Sir, did you call me?"
"Yes. We need to discuss our condition seriously; we are in a tight situation now. The enemy is better than in almost every aspect currently."
"I know very well, but winning and getting over the soldiers gives our soldiers a huge morale boost."
"Morale and courage can't alone win us the war. We need men and food to win; the only way for us to win is to capture the queen, the enemy. The enemy could have already re-captured the port. So, escaping via water is not a good decision, and going through the land will be a death wish."
"So, what is our plan to win?"
"Set all the sharpshooters from our forces and set them at the back of the enemy army, and ask all the fellow soldiers to bring the artillery right now. We need to set up our attack before sunrise."
"But we will be violating the rules of war. Our troops might rebel against us on this one!"
"You are right, but we can't win this battle by any fair means; we need to play a bit dirty. Take the foreign soldiers and tell the other soldiers you are collecting resources from the left-burned city, but instead, collect all the cannons in the area and hide behind the enemy camp."
" But.."
"Captian Levi, we can change this custom once we win this war. It is still unknown to the enemy that the one they killed wanted to join their army. We have already used them as a sacrifice. It is already too deep to go back."
"...."
Yuuka knew Levi was burdened with the guilt of not trusting his commander earlier. If it were any other person, they would disagree, but Levi will be in his current state.
"Levi, move as fast as you can, collect the best you can, and gather as much as you can, but don't be caught in any situation, or it will be a big loss for us. I am trusting you here."
The conversation was a one-sided assault on Levi's pride; he didn't want to do something so low, but it had to be done. So Levi thought to himself.
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Fun fact: Yuuka doesn't like to brush his teeth.