Out of the corner of her eyes, Miledi could see Meiru handing Diene over to Baharl. For a moment, he hugged Diene tight, then after seeing Meiru’s despondent expression, he wrapped his arms around Meiru as well and lent her his shoulder. At first, Meiru tried to pull away, but then he whispered something into her ear and she let him hug her. Her shoulders were trembling, and it was clear that she was crying.
Upon seeing that, Oscar and the others realized why it was only Diene who had come back with Meiru. Everyone gritted their teeth as another wave of despair washed over them.
After a few minutes of silent grieving, Lyutillis clapped her hands and said, “Everyone, we need to get moving. The situation is still dire.”
Her commanding voice reenergized everyone.
Miledi took a deep breath, nodded to herself, then looked around the room and said, “We need to come up with a more effective rescue strategy. Let’s start by exchanging information. Van-chan’s not back yet, so—”
Before Miledi could say someone should go look for him, Lyutillis replied, “There won’t be any need for that. It seems he’s just returned.”
Vandre had gone to rescue Rasul, and to find out the fate of the spy unit the Liberators had sent into the theocracy. His link with Kuou allowed him to easily track his familiar, so he might have learned something useful.
Nodding to each other, Miledi and the others headed outside. In the distance, they could see an ice dragon descending from the sky, the mists parting to allow him entry. Kuou was riding on his back, and though there were no members of the spy unit with him, he had brought someone back.
“Kia-chan?!” Miledi shouted, recognizing the bunny girl.
The moment Kiara saw Miledi, all the emotions she’d bottled up came flowing out and she burst into tears. She was carrying someone in her arms, and when Miledi lowered the two of them down with gravity magic, she saw who it was.
“Sui?” Lyutillis muttered. There was no snide, biting reply.
“The spy unit was wiped out. Sui fought an apostle by herself to help Kiara escape,” Vandre explained, canceling his transformation.
Everyone looked down at Sui’s corpse in shock, and Kiara shouted, “She protected me!”
Kiara then cast her tearful gaze over the assembled beastmen. She wanted to make sure all the warriors of the republic heard Sui’s final words.
“She said that rabbitmen were strong! That even if we can’t win right now, as long as we survive, eventually, we’ll be the ones to transform the world. She died smiling!”
Kiara’s voice echoed through the forest. The surviving members of Sui’s covert ops squad gathered around Kiara and looked down at their deceased commander through their masks.
After a moment of silence, one of them muttered, “Man, you were annoying to the very end.”
Thinking that he was insulting Sui, Kiara glared up at him. But then. she saw the look in his eyes.
“You did everything by yourself, and then you went and died by yourself too. How selfish can you get?”
“You really were the worst general in history. The whole time I was working for you, I was trying to find a way to get you fired.”
“You were such a pain that even an apostle couldn’t ignore you. Your shitty personality’s definitely going down in history.”
“I can’t believe you look so peaceful.”
Though everyone was insulting her, Kiara could feel the warmth in their words. The members of Sui’s unit all took their masks off simultaneously, and Kiara saw tears streaming down their faces.
“Salute the Haltina Republic’s greatest hero!” one of the men shouted, putting a hand on his chest. The other beastmen straightened their backs and followed suit, all of them closing their eyes.
“Miss. Thank you for bringing our general back home,” one of them said, turning to Kiara. She sobbed even harder, and Miledi hugged her and Sui both. Miledi didn’t bother asking about Kiara’s parents. If they weren’t here, it was obvious what had happened to them.
“Welcome home, Sui. The Pale Forest will never forget what you’ve done for it,” Lyutillis said in a solemn voice, patting Sui’s head. “May you rest in peace.”
Vandre watched on from a distance, while Oscar, Naiz, and the children looked like they were at a loss for words.
Just then, one of the Schnee clansmen that had been helping recover corpses near the capital gate came running over, shouting, “Van-sama!”
Van’s eyes nearly popped out of his skull when he saw that it was Margaretta, of all people. He thought he’d lost her forever, but here she was.
“Van-sama, I’m sorry for—”
Vandre hugged her tight, cutting her off.
“Huh? Wha—?!” she exclaimed. Tordretta and the others had never seen Margaretta so flustered before.
“I thought you were dead.”
“Is that because you felt your connection with Uruluk fade?”
“Yeah. If something managed to kill him, I didn’t think his rider would be able to survive it.”
Margaretta wrapped a bandaged arm around Vandre’s back, letting the warmth of her body prove to him that she was alive.
“My opponents blew themselves up,” she explained.
The demons riding on the three greatest airships the empire had ever built had poured enough mana into the engines to cause them to overheat and explode. The resulting explosion had been strong enough to carve a chunk out of the nearby mountain, and there was only one reason Margaretta and the others had survived.
“Just before the airships exploded, Uruluk threw me off and used his body to shield all of us.”
“I see... So he protected his family to the very end, huh?”
“I’m sorry. I know he meant a lot to—”
“It’s fine. Say no more.”
Vandre gently patted Margaretta’s trembling shoulder. Unfortunately, Oscar had some bad news he had to deliver to Vandre.