Inside, Claus was panicking.
Who would’ve thought that he’d kill Theodore when we were only discussing his nose hair?!
Claus had only been hoping that Liam would order Theodore to remove the hair. He never thought they’d throw the man off of the Argos. He was still technically their ally, after all. And now Liam was ordering them to wipe out the Imperial Guard too.
This isn’t good. I mean, they did betray us—but if we do this, we’ll really have no choice but to fight Prince Cleo next. But, well… Agh, I can’t…
However long he contemplated the situation, he couldn’t figure out how to proceed. After all, if the Imperial Guard had betrayed them from the start, then there was a good chance that Cleo was pulling their strings.
Even if we let them go, we’ll still have to confront Prince Cleo. I guess this is it for our alliance.
Claus felt nothing but anxiety about the future. For the time being, though, he’d carry out Liam’s orders.
When exactly did that betrayal begin…?
✦ ✦ ✦
The Purple Tail—which Liam had given Marie—wasn’t a superdreadnought, but it was a high-performance ship with good maneuverability, so Marie was fond of it. It suited her fighting style well.
Marie stood on the Purple Tail’s bridge, her stance wide, her arms crossed, and her eyes closed as she awaited Liam’s orders.
Haydi, who’d been talking to a communications operator, finally raised his voice. “Marie, orders from the boss! He says, ‘Wipe ’em out!’”
Receiving that order, Marie slowly opened her eyes. Her aura seemed different from usual. A quiet rage unlike her usual explosive anger now smoldered within her.
“Betrayal seems to be the Imperial family’s forte,” she remarked. In Marie’s mind, an image of Cleo was now superimposed onto the emperor who’d long ago turned her and her men to stone. “I won’t allow anyone who would destroy Lady Rosetta’s happiness to live. All ships, target Cleo’s Imperial Guard fleet!”
Marie thrust out her arm, and every House Banfield ship under her command took aim.
“For Lord Liam and Lady Rosetta…destroy them.”
The ships all moved at once to attack the confused Imperial Guards. The enemy fleet’s commander immediately opened a line of communication with Marie’s ship, and a man wearing the Imperial Guards’ uniform appeared on the monitor in front of her.
“Who the hell do you think you’re firing at?! We’re your allies!”
When the man called himself her ally, Marie raised an eyebrow. “Then why were you sitting there silently while your comrades fought? If you were truly our allies, you’d have joined the attack and contributed to our victory, wouldn’t you?”
Marie spoke in a low tone, not with her usual pretentious speech pattern. The crew on the Purple Tail’s bridge cowered at the sound.
Even Haydi said quietly, “Marie’s scary today…”
The enemy commander protested, enraged, almost as if he were trying to claim that they were the victims here. “Are you insane? The battle’s over! Count Banfield lost. What are you thinking, launching a sneak attack on the enemy? Our job is to get you off the battlefield!” He’d apparently been arguing with Liam about leaving the fray for some time now.
Marie scoffed at that news. “I see… You were in on this too, then.”
If this commander were in the dark, he would’ve participated in Liam’s plan, attacking Calvin’s faction with the rest. He hadn’t just failed to do that, he was now trying to stop them, so chances were that he’d been in on the betrayal from the start. It would have been strange for Cleo not to tell him what was going on, considering that the man was commanding an Imperial Guard fleet of thirty thousand ships.
The commander’s eyes darted awkwardly. “Wh-what’re you talking about?”
“Enough. Your master betrayed us… That’s sufficient, isn’t it?”
Even as Marie spoke to the commander, her fleet continued its fierce attack on the Imperial Guard. The commander’s ship must’ve taken a hit itself, because the man’s image onscreen shook violently.
“St-stop this foolishness! If you cease now, we’ll negotiate with Prince Cleo for—”
“That won’t be necessary.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll send that brat who doesn’t know his place to join you later. You can play Imperial Guard for him in the afterlife.”
Her commander’s authority allowed Marie to end the call.
Outside the bridge windows, enemy ships were being shot down one by one. Some of the pilots begged to be spared, but they were destroyed without mercy as well.
Haydi realized that the Imperial Guard’s formation was breaking apart. “Marie, the enemy has started to flee.”
“Don’t let a single one escape. Lord Liam’s noble allies are surrounding this area, but we’ll finish this ourselves.”
Watching the enemy fleet’s formation break apart, and its ships flee, Marie ordered a change in her own formation. “Split the fleet into four and surround them. They won’t be able to reform to fight back. We’ll round them all up and wipe them out.”
When she issued that order, the more than two hundred thousand ships under her command moved to carry out her will. These well-trained elites had been tempered by countless real battles, and they fulfilled Marie’s directive with perfect precision.
Her prediction was spot on. The enemy fleet could no longer coordinate, and they were quickly surrounded and destroyed.
Marie prepared to leave the bridge. “I’m going to sortie in a mobile knight. Haydi.”
“Y-yeah?” Haydi tensed when she spoke his name.
Marie turned back to him and smiled. “I’m going to go blow off some steam. Look after things here, okay?”
The faint smile on her face wasn’t that of a war-crazed beast, nor the phony noblewoman’s smile that she usually wore. This was the smile of an entirely different person.
When Marie was gone, Haydi let his real feelings slip. “If she acted that way more often, I bet the boss would be a lot happier with her… Guess that’s too much to ask, though.”