Rosenmarie was amused by how this did not even shock her anymore. For Felix, pulling that off had probably been a walk in the park.
“But why would Lord Felix have taken such risks to run off with His Imperial Highness?” Oscar asked.
“How should I know? He’s the one you want to ask...” Rosenmarie paused. “Hold on, the Azure Knights should’ve been fighting the Eighth Legion. How did that end up?”
Against common rabble, the Azure Knights’ victory would have been assured beyond a shadow of a doubt. But they had faced the army helmed by her sworn enemy, Death God Olivia. Though her forces were the underdog by far, from what Rosenmarie heard, in their very first campaign they had run circles around the Northern Perscillan army when it invaded Fernest. She doubted even the Azure Knights would have found them easy to best.
“The envoy says even she doesn’t know what happened there. This is nothing more than my own opinion, but I can’t see the Azure Knights losing, not so long as they were in shape to fight. My guess is that before the battle reached its conclusion, they declared a truce.”
“A truce...” Rosenmarie considered. “It’s not impossible, I suppose, considering Felix ran off with the former emperor... Now, what does our new emperor want me to do?”
Oscar looked taken aback, then he said reluctantly, “My lady, your orders are to take the Crimson and the Helios Knights and vanquish the traitorous Azure Knights.”
“I see. That explains why Emperor Darmés sent us reinforcements by way of this horde of creatures neither fish nor fowl. Hasn’t this gotten interesting?” Rosenmarie put her hand to her chin and let out a low chuckle. Oscar’s expression grew surpassingly grim.
“I’m sure I don’t need to remind you, my lady, that this is an imperial decree. It is not a thing one simply ignores, even if one were one of the Three Generals.”
“An imperial decree...” Rosenmarie murmured. “An imperial decree...” She picked up a fallen arrow, nocked it, then loosed it at a ghoul that was just then about to fall upon a soldier of the Royal Army. The arrow punched out the ghoul’s heart, emerging robed in scarlet, yet the creature sank its teeth into the soldier’s head as though nothing had happened.
“My lady!” Oscar shouted. Rosenmarie shrugged.
“Oops, I missed. You have to hand it to imperial soldiers these days, though—even losing a heart doesn’t faze them.”
“My lady, please,” Oscar said slowly, a tinge of desperation in his eyes. “Please just don’t do anything impetuous. If we defy the emperor, we’re as good as dead.”
“You say that, but Felix rebelled, didn’t he?”
“As I said earlier, it is not for the likes of me to guess at Lord Felix’s feelings.”
“I don’t have a damn clue what goes on in his mind either,” Rosenmarie replied. “But he’s not the sort of person to act without thinking.” First the drama of the imperial succession and the Azure Knights’ treason, now the ghouls Darmés had sent under the name of providing reinforcements? “Something is rotten in the empire at present, make no mistake. If we’re going to work out what lies at the heart of it,” Rosenmarie explained, “we can’t afford to make any unconsidered moves.”
“In other words, you are going to ignore His Imperial Majesty’s imperial decree?” Oscar’s voice shook.
“I didn’t say anything of the sort.”
“That is how it sounded to me, my lady.” Sweat visibly beaded on Oscar’s face, and his breath came in shallow gasps. Rosenmarie took an embroidered handkerchief from her pocket and tossed it at him.
“It’ll set a bad example for the soldiers if they see their esteemed chief of staff making a face like that.”
Oscar looked from the handkerchief in his hand to Rosenmarie, then back again, before mumbling an apology. Rosenmarie waved him off as though in irritation. “Before you get any ideas, you don’t have to give that back. I don’t need a handkerchief drenched in your sweat.” The corners of her lips curled up. Oscar’s did the opposite.
“You treat me cruelly, my lady,” he reproached her.
Rosenmarie cackled, giving his shoulder two friendly pats. “Oh, stop worrying. So long as I’m a soldier in the imperial army, I’m not going to ignore a decree from the emperor. I am still responsible for the lives of you lot, after all.”
“It would deepen the soldiers’ devotion to you still further if they heard that,” Oscar said readily, his expression clearing with undisguised relief.
“So long as our reinforcements are keeping the Royal Army occupied, our work here is done. We’ll leave a unit on lookout and head back to Kier Fortress.”
“Understood!”
Listening to the sound of Oscar’s boots as he descended the ladder, Rosenmarie gazed out across the battlefield. Even as she watched, the ghouls, in thrall to their instincts, threw themselves at the soldiers of the Royal Army fleeing in disarray.
You call those things imperial soldiers? Don’t make me laugh!
The things swarmed the soldiers who fell screaming and crying, tearing open their bellies and clawing at one another to be the first to stuff the exposed entrails down their gullets. Rosenmarie shifted her gaze and was greeted by the sight of another ghoul as it grabbed a soldier by the hair and sank its teeth into their neck, ripping off and chewing up chunks of flesh amid a fountain of blood. Down there, there was nothing resembling battlefield tactics. It was now nothing more than a slaughterhouse. Rosenmarie realized her hands, clenched into fists, were shaking with fury.
You come here and ruin my game... With that, she dashed up atop the stage. The hideous voices that came to her on the wind only added to her rage.