Wearing powered suits, House Banfield’s landing forces descended into the enclosed city. Led by Tia, and heavily armed, these brawny, well-trained experts in battle entered the baron’s mansion.
“Oh, baaaron! Where are youuu?” Tia called.
Dressed in a pilot suit that also functioned as a powered suit, Tia gripped a rapier in her right hand. Her left held a handgun, which she used to take out the enemies popping up to meet them as they appeared. Her movements were precise and controlled, but under her helmet she was smiling, eyes bloodshot.
When she came across a group of enemies trying to resist them from behind a barricade, Tia kicked the ground and leaped over the barricade. Landing in the midst of the group, she sliced into them with her rapier. She wielded the blade so swiftly that it almost seemed to bend in her grasp. It sliced through the enemies’ armor easily, staining the surrounding area red.
Discovering an enemy fortunate enough to survive the onslaught, Tia planted her foot on the fallen man’s chest to pin him down. The soldier’s expression was anguished; he was desperate to survive. He threw aside his weapon and raised his hands.
“Sp-spare me! I was ordered to fight!”
“Where’s the baron?” Tia demanded, threatening him with her rapier.
The enemy answered without hesitation. “H-he ran off right away. I don’t know if he’s hiding somewhere, or if he’s already fled. We were simply told to buy time for his escape with our lives!”
Tia kicked the soldier, knocking him unconscious, and ordered one of her subordinates to tie him up. “Take this one prisoner. Can you confirm whether there’s a vehicle escaping skyward? It might be a small ship or something else. Just see if you can spot anything.”
A communications officer checked in with the forces positioned above the planet. Receiving an immediate answer, they reported, “We’ve captured everyone who fled the planet, and the baron isn’t among them.”
“He’s hiding here, then… Find him. Lord Liam ordered us to make the baron atone for his sins.”
Tia led the knights and landing force through the mansion, wreaking havoc. They were ostensibly here to “rescue” the baron, but as they searched, they shot up the mansion with machine guns. They had the run of the place, blowing down walls with their bazookas anytime the urge struck them.
“Find the traitor! I’ll personally make him understand who he’s made an enemy of!”
Tia kept searching for Schlust with bloodshot eyes until one of her soldiers noticed something.
“There.”
The soldier had discovered an inconspicuous shelf that opened a door onto a hidden room. They didn’t know how to activate the mechanism, though, and the secret door was shielded by thick metal, so that it couldn’t be easily penetrated.
“There’s an elaborate mechanism here.”
“Oh, is there?” Tia kicked the door, forcing it open.
The brawny landing forces watched her in shock.
“She can’t be human, kicking a door like that open!”
“Knights can probably do that kind of thing, though, right?”
“No… Even a knight shouldn’t be able to…”
Tia shot a glance at the gossiping soldiers, who all fell silent. Then she started down the stairs the hidden door had formerly concealed. As she went, she called out in a voice that would surely terrify Schlust if the baron was hiding inside and could hear her.
“Oh, baaaron…baron who betrayed us from the start… Come out, come out, wherever you are…”
At the bottom of the stairs was a simply constructed room with no traps, self-destruct devices, or anything of the kind. Tia entered and found Schlust cowering in the middle of the chamber, the interior of which was entirely too lavish for a mere hidden room. He clutched treasure to his chest, tears streaming from his eyes.
“Eep!”
Piles of rare metals and antiques that Schlust had collected dotted the room.
“It’s quite a stash you’ve got here, considering what bad shape your domain is in. I’m impressed.” Following this sarcastic comment, Tia sheathed her rapier.
Evidently misunderstanding something, Schlust sighed with relief. “D-did you come to save me? Oh, thank goodness! I was hiding because I was terrified of being captured by nobles from Calvin’s faction.”
“Well, that’s good.”
Schlust stood and approached Tia. Smiling, she slammed her fist into him.
“Bfft!” Schlust flew backward into a wall.
Tia walked over to him. Lifted him up by his long hair, she said in an affected lilt, “Oh nooo! How could this haaaappen? We rushed here to save the baron, but we were too late and he diiied!”
“T-too late?! No, I’m—bfft!”
Before he could finish, Tia smacked his face a second time. Then she hit him a third and fourth time, his face becoming a swollen mess.
“I-I’ll gifh you treashrre,” Schlust cried, “Sho pleashe…”
He struggled desperately to get away from Tia but couldn’t do anything to escape her grip.
Tia gave him a disgusted look and said stonily, “Pathetic until the very end, aren’t you? Where’s your noble pride?”
“I’m shorry… Pleashe…”
“You’re pretty despised by your subjects, aren’t you? That’s only natural if you ruined the planet, didn’t even try to fix it, and then taxed your people heavily on top of that.”
Though Tia listed the baron’s failings, he didn’t even seem to understand the problem with his actions.
“What wassh wrong wifh fhat?”
When Schlust seemed genuinely not to grasp his misdeeds. Tia felt anger well up in her. “You don’t even realize how much suffering you’ve caused your people, do you? I know… In that case, why don’t I give you a fitting end?”
Still holding Schlust by his hair, Tia started walking. She emerged from the hidden passage to find her soldiers waiting for her.
“Lady Christiana?! Our plan was to—”
Their plan had been to kill the baron if they found him, then claim it was the work of nobles from Calvin’s faction. Thus, seeing that Tia had captured the man alive confused her soldiers.
As she kept walking, Tia explained herself. “He seems not to understand how foolish he is, so I’ve decided to teach him at the end of his life. Gather the people living in and around the enclosed city. We’ve got a wonderful show for them.”
Realizing what Tia was planning, her soldiers quickly scattered, leaving only a few behind to flank her as guards.
“Is it okay to do this without getting permission first?” one asked her.
Tia looked down at Schlust, who continued to struggle pathetically against her. “It’ll be more fitting for him to die at his subjects’ hands than at those of one of Calvin’s nobles.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Tia brought Schlust to a square in the enclosed city and threw him to the ground. There, he was set upon by waiting citizens of House Glynn’s domain, all of whom were armed. A knife—probably from someone’s kitchen—stabbed into the baron’s calf.
“Ow! Id hurds! Helb me!”
Schlust screamed and cried, but his subjects’ anger hadn’t been quelled. They stepped forward and stabbed him—one by one, as if there was a rule that each got a single turn.
“What do you mean, ‘it hurts’?! Do you know what we’ve been through?!”
“My family died because of you!”
“Living a life of luxury while the rest of us suffer!”
Schlust’s rulership had been horrible, so his people’s anger couldn’t be contained.
“Forgib me! I wun do id again! I’ll lower takshes—I will!”
His words were ignored, and blades stabbed him again and again. As a noble, Schlust had a body more robust than a normal person’s, but that worked against him now. A regular person would’ve died quickly, but the benefits of Schlust’s nobility only prolonged his suffering. Tia watched the scene with annoyance.
Her adjutant, Claudia, noticed her foul mood and asked about it. “Lady Tia, are you displeased about something?”
Tia turned her gaze to the sky. “I wish that I could be fighting up there instead. I feel pathetic, since Lord Liam entrusted Marie with the army in my place.” Marie had stolen her command role.
Claudia didn’t think that they could’ve prevented that, however. “Well, the fossils are rather gung-ho about this fight. Lord Liam was probably just being considerate.”
“I suppose so… But I wish that I could at least have killed Theodore myself.” He’d been such an annoyance to her that she was upset not to be personally eliminating him.
Claudia smiled wryly. “It’s too bad, but we’ll have to give that one to Sir Claus.”