Italica
Bozes and the other knights nodded nervously and followed the veteran knight.
Bozes and Panache did not know why Piña had not only scolded them but had even thrown a goblet at them.
"We broke the treaty in less than a day, and it just had to be him..."
Hamilton peeked at their prisoner, who was in the corner of the room.
Itami lay there, his body devoid of strength.
Hamilton placed a hand on his shoulder and shook him while shouting, "Itami-dono, Itami-dono." But Itami was covered in abrasions, and he sported many bruises from being beaten by many people, so his physical and mental stamina was depleted, to the point where he couldn't even answer her.
It was not hard to imagine what had happened to him on the way back here from looking at him.
"Hamilton, how is Itami-dono?" asked Piña with a great amount of worry.
"It looks like he's been hurt pretty badly, we need to get him care immediately.
Then she summoned the chief maid of House Formal and said, "Sorry, we'll leave him to you." The old maid and butler replied, "Understood," and then the maids came together to form a human wall around Itami. He has transported away in this manner.
After watching Itami leave, Piña fiercely snapped her head back.
She looked just like a demon then, and after slapping Bozes - who was a bit taller than her - square in the face, she began questioning her.
"What on earth did you lot do to Itami-dono?!"
"We, we just brought him here the way we would a normal prisoner..."
The normal way of treating prisoners, for the Empire, usually involved dragging them behind a horse, and when the prisoners collapsed from exhaustion, they would be poked with spears or lashed with the flat of a blade, forcing them to rise and continue. Even if they did stand, however, they would still be brutalized with fists and feet. In this way, the prisoners would lose the will and strength to resist or flee, and it was also part of the process of breaking them before selling them as slaves.
Piña started to mutter "This is bad, this is dreadful." She grabbed her head with both hands and shuddered as she tried to suppress the rage running rampant through her body.
If one thought calmly about it, it was not entirely Bozes' or Panache's fault. After all, they had been handling an enemy who had taken over Arnus, and they could not possibly have known Piña had signed a treaty with them.
However, sometimes, unlikely things like this simply happened. The fact was that the JSDF had immediately withdrawn from Italica once the treaty took effect. Excuses like "they did not know" or "they were told too late" would not work. After all, the ones who wanted the treaty to take effect immediately had been Piña's side. Itami had been captured after the treaty came into effect, and worse, it had happened within House Formal's domain, where they were guaranteed free passage.
These actions would break both treaties. There was no doubt about it.
This was a preferred tactic of the Empire, starting a war on the pretext of a treaty violation. Violations of Treaties often happened in a world with poor communications like this one, with subordinate units fighting on long after the rest of them had surrendered because nobody told them to stop.
It was because the Empire did these things often that they felt the JSDF would do the same to them.
A chill ran down Piña's spine.
The music which rang across the sky. The battle of Valkyries and the demons sneer now echoed inside her ear. She could not help but imagine her knight band, Italica, even the whole Empire, burned to ashes by the flames of hell by the JSDF forces. She already knew her Empire does not have a chance against them individually. She doubts even the gods can stop them.
Bozes and Panache, who had learned about the agreement Piña signed with the JSDF, and now is the city no longer the Empire's supervision. But became a free city. A neutral ground for negotiation. They learned all of this and much more from Hamilton, finally realized what they had done, what Itami had meant by "Let's talk this out" and why he had not resisted his capture.
"Itami's men should have been there, what happened to them?"
"The ran off just like that."
They had laughed at Itami because Itami's subordinates had run off instead of trying to rescue him. However, they now knew why they had chosen not to retaliate, but flee.
If they could have taken them all captive at the time, they could have wiped them all out under the pretext of the unit going missing, but if everyone else escaped, that would have been useless. Not that they could have captured them in the first place - they had Rory the Reaper with them.
Later in Piña's office she tried to figure out how to apologize from the parties.
"Your Excellency, we are fortunate that nobody's life was lost here. Rather than try and come up with some clever ruse, I feel we should sincerely apologize to them."
These were the words of Gray Co Aldo, who had been listening quietly from the side of the room.
"But these were the people who even asked us to treat these bandits 'hyu-main-lee', and they even asked us not to abuse them. If they found out what happened to Itami, don't you think that would get them mad enough to attack us?"
"Then we just need to atone for that as well."
"That is, you want me to atone for that, right? But what if the other party asks us to hand over or execute the responsible parties? What if they want to retort the irresponsible knight's acts?"
"Well, what else do you want to do? Declare war? These are opponents who ride iron pegasi, and then you have the Grim Reaper Rory Mercury to worry about. If it were me, I'd rather not chance that." The fifth child of Emperor Molt grabbed her head in her desperation. "This is bad.... This is very bad..."
Even a hardened veteran like Gray was shaken to the core after seeing those horrible scenes. Piña was steeling herself to undergo any kind of humiliation as long as it would allow her to atone for this successfully.
That might be so, but, there was nobody present who was higher-ranked than her. Piña needed to avoid a situation where she might be forced to forfeit her life after Bozes and Panache admitted their guilt.
The air turned cold and heavy around them.
After a brief silence, Gray attempted to break the tension by saying in a humorous tone, "Well, in the end, the situation depends on what Itami-dono thinks about it." He laughed nervously.
It was already past midnight.
At this point, Bozes, under Piña's secret orders, had arrived at Itami's door, with a pained expression on her face. However, nobody heard her knocking.